PEARSE FISHES OF LAKE VALENCIA, VENEZUELA 



17 



TABLE IV 



Total catches at all depths and localities with nets of different sized meshes. 

 The figures give the total catch and the catch per hour. 



the abundance, size, and variety of fishes present at different 

 localities. The method has some apparent defects the most 

 active species are most often caught, species too small to 

 become entangled in the finest meshes are not caught at all, 

 and some fishes (catfishes, eels) without hard exoskeletal parts 

 are seldom caught. The results tabulated lead to the following 

 conclusions: There are few or no large fishes in the lake, 

 because nothing was ever caught in the 3-inch mesh nets. The 

 guabina (Hoplias malar abicus) is the largest and most active 

 fish in the lake. It has a close rival numerically in the chusco 

 (A quid ens pulcher). The mataguaro (Crenicichla geayi) is 

 rare in the lake or moves about very little, probably the 

 former is true for it was seldom caught in seines. The total 

 catch of fishes per hour is far below those sometimes made in 

 some lakes in the United States. In Lake Mendota, for exam- 

 ple, the average number of perch caught was sometimes over 

 a hundred in twenty-four hours for a 1 in. mesh set in deep 

 water during the summer. 



The gaubina and a sardina, Astyanax bimaculatus, are found 

 in all habitats. There are more fishes and species along the 

 shores than in deep water, but one species, the chusco, appears 

 to be more abundant at greater depths. The chusco is a mud- 

 bottom species, is least abundant on the shores of islands, and 

 is not found in rivers. The mataguaro, on the other hand, is 

 typically a river fish and is found in the lake only in the turbu- 

 lent water formations along the shores of the islands. 



There is perhaps a migration of the smaller fishes into 

 deeper water during the day. This is indicated by the fact 

 that seining along shore was much more productive at night. 



