AAGB
members and Singapore University students, Swee Hee Tan and Heok Hui
Tan visited 40 sites on Pulau Bintan in April 1992 and May 1993. This
is part of the Riau archipelago is part of Sumatra, Indonesia and just
south of Singapore and peninsular Malaysia. Pulau Bintan is being
rapidly developed as a beach resort so the vegetation is already badly
disturbed and the few patches of forest are secondary end even these
are surrounded by plantations. Seven anabantoids (includingLuciocephalus, the pikehead) and 5 snakeheads were found on the island. The snakeheads were C.striata, C.lucius, C.gachua, C.melasoma andC.bankanensis. As well as the ubiquitousTrichogaster trichopterus, the 3 spot gourami, and Anabas, the climbing perch, 4 species of Betta were found including the recently-described B.miniopinna, a dwarf of the B.coccina group and allied toB.persephone from southern peninsular Malaysia. This appeared to be the only bubble-nester as the remaining species,B.pugnax, B.spilotogena (a big, yellow Betta and part of the B.waseri group) and, intriguingly, B.edithae are all mouthbrooders. While all the other species may be found in Malaysia, B.edithae is
normally associated with Indonesia. In Bintan, it came from
open-country flowing streams next to secondary forest and rice-fields.
Heok Hui Tan noted that the female laid secondary eggs for the
free-swimming young to consume. Four specimens of a Parosphromenus(liquorice gourami) sp., resemblingP.deissneri from Banka, were found in open waters in degraded secondary forest over clay and laterite substrate in water of pH 5.8. Like B.miniopinna and B.spilotogena, this is normally a blackwater species which indicates that peat swamp habitats once existed on Pulau Bintan. References 1.
Tan, S.H. and Tan, H.H. 1994. The freshwater fishes of Pulau Bintan,
Riau archipelago, Sumatera, Indonesia. Tropical Biodiversity 2, 351-367.