First report of the alien species Trichopodus trichopterus (Pallas, 1770) in the state of Ceará, Brazil

Abstract

The three-spot gourami, Trichopodus trichopterus (Pallas, 1770), is naturally distributed in Southeast Asia: Indonesia and in the Mekong river basin (Low and Lim, 2012). Under natural conditions is found in slow-flowing streams, shallow lakes and swamps with lush riparian vegetation (Rainboth, 1996), tolerates large pH and temperature fluctuations and low levels of dissolved oxygen due to a suprabranchial labyrinth (Low and Lim, 2012; Blank and Burggren, 2014). The juveniles eat mainly zooplankton and benthonic algae, while adults are opportunistic omnivores (Low and Lim, 2012). Due to its usefulness in the fight against mosquito larvae and its popularity as an ornamental fish, the species has been introduced in many regions worldwide (Webb et al., 2007). The present study constitutes the second report of T. trichopterus from the Mid-Northeastern Caatinga fish ecoregion, and first report of a species of the genus Trichopodus in the state of Ceará (Northeastern Brazil). On 16 November 2015 and 19 November 2015, specimens of T. trichopterus were captured in the Santo Anastácio (SA) reservoir during monitoring of the ecosystem conducted by the Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology (LEA/UFC). Located in the Metropolitan basin, within Federal University of Ceará (UFC), the reservoir is part of the Maranguapinho river basin (Figure 1). Following capture with a sieve among aquatic macrophytes, the