LOOKING FOR THE FAT FISH
By: Mariana Alejandra Moscoso Rodríguez
Javier Alejandro Maldonado Ocampo
Translated by Donald Taphorn
Lago de Tota, Boyacá.
Photography by : Mariana A Moscoso
Why talk about an extinct fish? A fish that no one talks about, nobody remembers, no one cites. What is the importance of evoking it in a country whose living natural heritage overflows with an abundant wealth of species? What is the point of taking the only extinct species in the country from oblivion when dozens of species await discovery in our continental waters? Why immerse yourself in this story?
The first specimen of the Fat Fish (Rhizosomichthys totae, family Trichomycteridae) was collected by Cecil Miles in 1942. Museo de Historia Nacional. National University of Colombia.
Photography: Mariana A. Moscoso Rodríguez
Reviewing history through culture helps to keep the enigmas of life and the planet unaltered, and this is, above all, a response to circumstances and a living example of the complexity of wealth, the certainties and uncertainties of our society. It was through the perambulating discourses of an era and a science that we happily undertook the search for the Fat Fish (Rhizosomichthys totae), a species cataloged as extinct in 1994 in the IUCN’s red data book of endangered species. Since 1942 the fish has not been seen again, the attempts that have been made to find it have all been in vain. This time, we looked for it in a cultural sampling, an exploration that showed that beauty and life have their origin in nature and they constantly take refuge in the spirit of those who were part of this history.
THE LAKE:
With permanently transparent waters, in the middle of the eccentric grandeur of the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes, we find the majestic Lake Tota, second largest lake in South America overflowing with fantastic tales in the stories shared by its inhabitants about its origin and multiple uses.
Located 250 kilometers from Bogotá, around the Crystal Lake as its guardians call it; the memory is intertwined with dialogue. Home of the mansions of the gods belonging to a rich culture, this evokes legends about one of the kingdoms of America that maintained a mystical respect for the place: The Muiscas, some of its first settlers.
Perched at 3,020 meters above sea level, fed by the mountain moors of Las Alfombras, Suse, Hirva, Tobal, Curies, Pozos and Hato Lagoon, picturesque is the scenic beauty of the Lake that falls under the jurisdiction of Cuitiva, Tota and Aquitaine counties . Four rivers contribute more than 95% of the surface flow that enters the Lake: Hato Laguna , Los Pozos, Tobal and Olarte . Regardless of the location from which you observe the Lake’s landscape, these scenes exemplify the interventions, impacts, effects and processes of human activities throughout its history. Its human population reflects the relationship and service between environment and society.
Fingernails full of dirt, wool ruanas, high rubber boots, caps and hats are the attire that provide warmth to their population and symbolize the ways of managing the environment in an unstable and cold climate with average temperatures of six to twelve degrees centigrade ; the Lake’s surroundings give the sensation of standing on a balcony that overlooks a secret scenario of Colombia. Secret like what once existed in its waters. Beyond being a water resource of vital importance for the domestic and productive life of local communities as is clearly stated in the literature that refers to this Lake, the lake was home to the Fat Fish, which existed there as its only native species.
However, the transformation that the Lake’s ecosystem has endured the impacts of many lucrative activities such as the planting of green onions (the cultivation of which has unleashed the environmental degradation of the Lake) that covers 95% of the flat cultivable area of the Lake Tota basin in Aquitaine ; and the introduction of the Rainbow Trout (Oncorhychus mykiss), which is believed to have helped cause the extinction of the Fat Fish.
The fish:
The Fat Fish (Rhizosomichthys totae) is a catfish of the family Trichomycteridae, which has many species that inhabit most of the Andes in South America. It was described in February 1942 by Cecil Miles, founding member of the Asociación Nacional de Piscicultura y Pesca de Colombia, a pioneer in the introduction of rainbow trout to the country and one of those in charge of starting fish farming in the Cintas station, located in the Alto de las Cintas of Tota Lake .
This station served two purposes, the first as a laboratory for the first Colombian project that promoted cold water fish farming with the introduction of rainbow trout for nutritional purposes of the population of the Cundiboyaca highlands, as destiny would have it, to facilitate the first encounter of this English ichthyologist with a new species of fish for the country.
Lago de Tota, Boyacá.
Photography by : Mariana A Moscoso
The nutritional intentions became law 147 of 1936 for which 100,000 embryonated eggs of rainbow trout were imported from North America. In 1939 the trout were introduced into the lake . Three years later, Miles said that the introduction of trout in the lake would be one of the possible causes of the extinction of Fat Fish. In 1971, George Dahl , another fish scholar and considered one of the fathers of ichthyology in Colombia, would once again stress the trout's responsibility for the extinction of this species. However, 28 years later, in 1999, and as a result of the project "Search for the extinct Fat Fish",
Founding members of PISPESCA with trout alevinos for the sowing of rivers and lakes. Picture taken from: Ministerio de Agriculta de Colombia
one of the participants of that project, the Colombian ichthyologist José Iván Mojica, affirmed that despite not having found the fish, it was possible to discard the trout as the first suspect for causing its extinction since they live in different places in the lake.
Thirteen centimeters long, enveloped in a thick layer of fatty tissue, floating in alcohol in a glass jar rests the partially fried corpse of one of the specimens of the Fat Fish deposited by Miles in the fish collection of the Natural History Museum of the National University of Colombia (ICNMHN) in Bogotá. José Iván Mojica, curator of the collection, opens the compactor to take out the well conserved (and long sought) jar of Fat Fish specimens. Inside it a label states the main characteristics of one of the great enigmas of the country.
Iván Mojica with a Fat Fish. Museo de Historia Nacional. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Photograph: Mariana A Moscoso.
Dark brown is the mutilated head of one of the two specimens available in this collection. Next to this rests a charred creature, from its torso protrude seven circumferential rings that resemble fried rings of onion, apparently its common name is in reference of this very strange and unique characteristic of this Colombian catfish. The Fat Fish was found only in Lake Toto, hence its narrow endemism. In the whole world there are only ten specimens known, evidence that science can verify that it once existed. All specimens were collected in 1942, however, the dates and exact locations of where they were collected are unknown. Miles stated that the first revelation of its existence occurred years before its formal description in 1942 when, "as a consequence of an earthquake that occurred at the time, many were killed and floated to the surface". However, according to the records of the Geological Service in Colombia, no earthquakes occurred in Boyacá between 1903 and 1942 , which calls into question this statement made by the English ichthyologist.
The physical characteristics of the Fat Fish were illustrated in a drawing done by Cecil Miles . The description is based on assumptions that were never verified, such as the specific location of their habitat, which is suspected to be the depths of the lake, which possibly places it in the area of Lake Chico and Grande, where depth varies between 40 and 61 meters . As for its rings of fat, (the characteristic that makes it exceptional in its family as it is the only freshwater catfish with a fatty mantle of this kind) , it is believed that they may have aided in withstanding changes in temperature and / or storage of energy sources.
The conditions that precluded a more detailed description of the fish and its habitat allude to the situation in which the studies of ichthyology were found in the country and apparently it was data that could have contributed to a more detailed description of the specimens was overlooked. However, since Miles deposited specimens of the Fat Fish he collected in scientific collections in Europe, the United States and Colombia, he thus assured for posterity the possibility of developing new studies of this enigmatic fish.
This is how sixty-six years later (published on March 4, 2009), a more detailed redescription of the Fat Fish could be published in a scientific journal . It was done by the ichthyologists Luis Fernández of the Miguel Lillo Foundation Institute of Tucumán, Argentina and Scott Schaefer of the American Museum of Natural History of New York, United States. In this way and through the use of new technologies now available, the internal anatomy of the fish came to light.
The ten available specimens of this species are a true treasure of natural history, so to even think about damaging any of these to study of its internal anatomy, with traditional invasive techniques, was always considered as a major no-no by the scientific community. For this reason, only after technological advances available for scientific work such as computed microtomography, a high-resolution X-ray scanning technique that has been used to complement research on morphology in other fish and groups animals, was it possible to present the first description that includes information about its internal anatomy.
The results of that study allowed us to observe and confirm unique characteristics that help differentiate the Fat Fish at the generic and specific level (among them its famous fat rings throughout the body), which make this species unique from any other catfish in the family Trichomycteridae to which it belongs . However, this redescription did not provide new information on the possible causes of the extinction of the fish or about ecological aspects and the habitat in which this species was found, so the enigmas about its discovery have continued.
The search:
photographs taken around the lake of tota with the communities
Photography by : Mariana A Moscoso
Three kilometers from Cuitiva, is the Mirador Del Lago, sitting next to a bonfire is don Ab, community leader and owner of the place. He is sharing an introductory talk about the social context of the lake, which according to don Ab, much is rumored about the fate of the researchers who go to the lake: they run into the resistance of the people, because most of them have been kicked out when threatened by the tip of a machete, and warns about the precautions that must be taken at the time of establishing dialogue, in the middle of the search for the fish.
Fortunately a machete is not part of this story. But it does figure into the stories about the expansion of the agricultural frontier and the deterioration of the lake’s water sources, to mention two examples of the environmental problems impacting Lake Tota. The case of the Fat Fish is just as disconcerting as the fate of the lake that was once its home. However, our search for information in the surrounding hamlets reawakened a sense of curiosity and energetic desire to know the Fat Fish’s history that helped overcome local people’s reluctance and helped establish a spirit of collaboration and warm welcome among them.
Lonely and muddy are some sections of the 43 kilometers that run along the Circunvalar Avenue and that connects the more than 30 districts around the lake. On the way to Llano Alarcón, right in Balcones district, a rainstorm made possible one of our first encounters. Don Ricardo Reyes and his wife Carmelita offered refuge to the Fat Fish information searchers.
The memories of don Ricardo were transformed into a story, who in the midst of the downpour said that neither he, nor his wife Carmelita, both natives of the local district belonging to Cuitiva County, had heard about the fish because this area has always been dedicated to raising livestock. He stated and assured us that there must be something in the book that he bought in the year 1976 and that he considers as a treasure, because “besides telling of the beauty I have seen in this part of the world, it also mentions the conflicts it presents” and it was precisely because of his books treasured condition that he almost lost it when a renowned local politician borrowed it six years ago, he didn’t return it for five years! don Ricardo went on to say "I went to look for it whenever I could because that book is no longer available and I think that after so much insistence, he got tired of me and he gave it back to me" and ends the story with a wicked laugh. don Reyes wanted to penetrate into the past of the Fatty Fish, and was especially interested the origin of its habitat.
As time goes by, the rumors about the fish are scattered among the lake’s districts. Most are impressed to see our photographs of one of the few known specimens of this fish, and that emotion that becomes a shock when people learn that it was a native of this place. Those who do not know about the fish, remember someone who may have some knowledge of it and so we are being drawn from one district to the other, from one municipality to another, circumnavigating the lake in our search.
The process of disintegration of the natural system is exposed as the Lake is traversed, the transformation of the landscape shows how hectares of land have been dried up to be used for agriculture, an activity that has generated environmental deterioration due to the misuse and management of agrochemicals; this scenario is repeated time and again as we rack up kilometers in our journey to reach Llano Alarcón.
Once in Llano Alarcón, we found a Rainbow Trout sales station, after holding several meetings, one of the fishermen claimed to have an acquaintance who caught Fat Fish in Playa Blanca, a man named Murillo. He, a native of Tota claimed to have caught them several times in the late 80s, says he has collaborated with several researchers, but his story is more like a learned monologue than a memory, when we asked about the color of the fish he asked for money before he would respond. Which is not a big surprise, since this sector of Playa Blanca is a tourist spot, where nothing happens without recompense. Without lowering her guard, a coffee vendor, Mrs. Alba, widow of Castillo, calls us, "it is not often that people look here for that fish, the Fat Fish, I don’t think that fish in your photograph exists around here. There are many fishermen around the lake and we have never heard that they have caught anything different fish from the Trucha or the Runcho. Some from here just repeat tall tales to get money for their story". After paying her for the coffee, Dona Alba, gives us the directions to reach a popular store where fishermen gather to take Guarapo every Sunday afternoon in La Puerta district, which is in Tota County.
Don Aníbal Rojas, a fisherman and owner of the Mirador del Lago Restaurant Number Two shared this recollection about the Fat Fish: “Before the introduction of the trout, local people were engaged in agriculture and raising livestock, people say that the Fat Fish was hunted by hand with machetes and sticks, to extract their fat, because at that time there were no nets, and so they weren’t fished around here". In our search for the Fat Fish we found two important fishery species for the region: the first is known as El Capitan de la Sabana, Runcho, Lagunero or Barbuchas (Eremophilus mutisii) and theother is called Guapucha (Grundulus bogotensis). Both are endemic to the Cundiboyaca High Plateau but records of their introduction to the lake are unknown, so it’s possible that both the Fat Fish and the Captain coexisted long before the arrival of colonization.
According to Carlos Manuel Montenegro in his training as an aquaculture technologist and specialist in the cultivation of trout, he studied the use of the captain of the Savannah from the Muisca culture. "This was cultivated by the natives along the Cundiboyaca High Plateau, long before the settlers arrived. They practiced fish farming in channels or streams, nowadays almost extinct. They fed them there and paid tribute to them because they considered them sacred. However, the importance that the Fat Fish had in their culture is completely unknown "and adds:
The fish that the local inhabitants consider closest to the Fat Fish, based on their appearance, is the Captain of the Sabana or Barbuchas whose scientific name, mentioned above, was coined in honor of the sage José Celestino Mutis who ushered in the first generation of native Creole naturalists. One of the most representative dishes of the local Creole cuisine of the Cundiboyaca High Plateau, “steamed Captain”, a fish which is a close relative of the Fat Fish.
On the other side of Tota County, in Playa Rosada, we found Mr. Marco Antonio Rueda, a former employee of Paz del Río Foundry, who for 35 years was in charge of the lake and said that he had several times found Fat Fish entangled in retaining screens that the company installed to filter the garbage from Aquitaine. He told us that the Fat Fish or Runcho as it is also known in the official description and that is used by the locals to refer to the Barbuchas, is not extinct" and then he took us to look for it in the screen, along with Mr. Ricardo Goméz, an employee of the same company who offered to take us to look for it.
Although this new search for the Fat Fish was equally fruitless, valuable information has been recorded about the enigmatic existence of this fish and the process that led to its formal description in 1942. The few testimonies that refer to the existence of the fish put in doubt whether it really came from the lake, which opens a new avenue of inquiry in the search for new evidence in the framework of interdisciplinary collaboration.
This cultural search, at the same time deepens our questions caused by the lack of knowledge about this fish, because when something has existed, although its time on Earth may be seemingly insignificant, it is remembered and its story is transmitted from generation to generation. If the fish existed in the Lake, why is it difficult to find it in the memory of its oldest inhabitants, including fishermen? However, each encounter achieves a closer approximation to the truth with its cultural identification and these contributions reflect the knowledge, values and importance that are established between communities, fish and history.
Notes.
(1,3) Barriga Cañon.Julio Eduardo, (2000). Análisis Isotópico en el Lago de Tota. XV Seminario Nacional de Hidráulica e Hidrología.Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
(2) González Morales (2016). Impactos de la variabilidad climática y las actividades humanas en la dinámica hidrólogica del Lago de Tota. Trabajo de grado para optar al título de Magister en Ingeniería Ambiental. Facultad de Ingeniería. Universidad de Antioquia.
(4) Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. (2007). Atlas de Páramos en Colombia Atlas de páramos de Colombia. Bogotá, Colombia.
(6,7) Montenegro, Manuel Carlos. T.A. Grupo Tecnología En Acuacultura. La Incursión de la trucha Arco Iris
(8,14) Schaefer, S.A. & Fernández, L. 2009. Redescription of the Pez Graso, Rhizosomichthys totae (Trichomycteridae), of Lago de Tota, Colombia, and aspects of cranial osteology revealed by microtomography. Copeia 2009 (3): 510-522.
(9, 13) Libro Rojo De Peces Dulceacuícolas de Colombia. (2012) Mojica, J. I.; J. S. Usma; R. Álvarez-León y C. A. Lasso (Eds). 2012. Libro rojo de peces dulceacuícolas de Colombia 2012. Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, WWF Colombia y Universidad de Manizales. Bogotá, D. C., Colombia.
(10,12) Miles, C. 1942. Descripcion sistematica del "pez graso" del Lago de Tota (Boyacá). Caldasia 5: 55–58.
(11) Servicio geológico Colombiano. (2017) Sismicidad Histórica de Colombia entre los años 1917-1960
(13) Morales, Carolina. (2016). Impactos de la variabilidad climática y las actividades humanas en la dinámica hidrológica del Lago de Total Universidad de Antioquia.
(14) . Schaefer, S.A. & Fernández, L. 2009. Redescription of the Pez Graso, Rhizosomichthys totae (Trichomycteridae), of Lago de Tota, Colombia, and aspects of cranial osteology revealed by microtomography. Copeia 2009 (3): 510-522.
(15) Academia Natural de Ciencias. Departamento de Ictiología. Atlas digital de la morfología de Bagres