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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

The Amazon has not only the most diverse freshwater fish fauna in the world but also some of the most unusual species. Among these are fruit and seed eating fish. None is more ecologically spectacular or economically vital than the tambaqui. Considered one of the best-tasting freshwater fish in the world, it has now become a prime candidate for rainforest aquaculture.

"So Fruitful a Fish" presents the first truly holistic portrait of an Amazonian fish as it exists in its natural habitat and in farming environments. More than just a biology text, the book demonstrates how the tambaqui symbolizes the tight ecological link between rivers and rainforests and the need to conserve floodplaint habitats that are now being destroyed by cattle and water buffalo ranching. Its story will be of enormous benefit to ecologists, developers, fishery biologists, aquaculturists, conservationists, and others interested in the dramatic evolutionary complexities of tropical life.

Carlos Araujo-Lima is senior scientist and director of graduate studies of the Aquatic Biology Program of the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil. He has published widely in major English and Portuguese journals.

Michael Goulding is senior scientist at the Rainforest Alliance and director of its Amazon Wildlife Program. His many books include "The Fishes and the Forest", "Man and Fisheries on an Amazonian Frontier", "Rio Negro", "Rich Life in Poor Water", "Amazon: The Flooded Forest", "Floods of Fortune", and most recently, with Ronaldo Barthem, "The Catfish Connection".

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Preface.

-List of Figures / List of Tables.

-Preface.

-Acknowledgments.

-1. PROMISE FROM THE RAINFOREST.

-Tambaqui: A Flagship Fish.
-Ecology, conservation and aquaculture.

-2. CLASSIFICATION AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

-Taxonomic classification.
-Higher classification.
-Ontogeny, shape and color patterns.
-Size.
-Mouth, dentition and gill rakers.
-Air bladder, intestines and pyloric caeca.
-Tambaqui as a food and market fish.

-3. DISTRIBUTION.

-Tambaqui as a place name.
-Extant distribution.
-River type and distribution.
-Seasonal flooding.
-Floodplain lakes, floating meadows and flooded forests.
-Air and water temperature.
-Dissolved oxygen.
-Current speed.

-4. MIGRATION AND REPRODUCTION.

-Recruitment from the Rio Amazonas (Brazil).
-Size at first spawning and sex ratio.
-Spawning seasong and sites.
-Fecundity and egg size.
-Reproductive investments.
-Downstream displacement of newborn.
-Observations in the Orinoco system.

-5. NURSERY HABITATS.

-Food for larvae.
-Food for juveniles.
-Tambaqui and zooplankton.
-Wild rice.

-6. FRUITS AND SEEDS.

-Fruit and seed eating by Tambaqui diets.
-Visual essay on fruits and seeds eaten by tambaqui.

-7. NUTRITION.

-Food assimilation and body composition.
-Carbon isotopic composition of Tambaqui.

-8. AGE, GROWTH, METABOLISM, AND BIOMASS.

-Environmental influence on growth rates.
-Respiration.
-Metabolism.
-Daily ration and an approximate energy budget.
-Biomass.

-9. TAMBAQUI FISHERIES.

-Technology of Tambaqui fishing.
-Estimates of an annual Tambaqui catches.
-Tambaqui prices.

-10. INDUCED SPAWNING AND FRY CULTURE.

-Inducing spawning in captivity.
-Brood-stock management.
-Egg incubation.
-Care of larvae.
-Pond treatment, zooplankton production, and predation.

-11. DISEASE AND PARASITES.

-Bacteria.
-Fungi.
-Protozoans.
-Trematodes (Flatworns).
-Acanthocephalan worms.
-Nematodes.
-Copepod and Branchiuran crustaceans.

-12. INTENSIVE FISH FARMING.

-Traditional food sources.
-Alternative food sources.
-Fish orchards.
-Monoculture in ponds.
-Monoculture in cages.
-Polyculture.
-Mortality and production.
-Hybrids.
-Costs.

-13. EXTENSIVE FISH FARMING.

-Hatcheries.
-Reality of increasing floodplain production.
-Economic and cultural considerations.

-14. CONCLUSION.

-Evolutionary ecology
-Tambaqui for fish culture
-Habitat protection
-Genetic considerations
-Minimum area for wild populations

-References.

-Index.