Research Article

Aquarium trade and fish farms as a source of non-native freshwater fish introductions in French Guiana

¹ Laboratoire Évolution & Diversité Biologique (EDB UMR5174), Université Paul Sabatier ‑ Toulouse 3, CNRS, IRD, UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex, France
² Guyane Wild Fish, Chez Aprosep, 81 rue Christophe Colomb, 97300 Cayenne, French Guiana
³ Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Herpétologie et Ichtyologie, Route de Malagnou 1, 1211 Genève, Suisse
⁴ CNRS, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, AgroParisTech, CIRAD, INRA, Université des Antilles, Université de Guyane, Kourou, France
⁵ INRAE, UR1037 LPGP, Fish Physiology and Genomics, Campus de Beaulieu, 35000 Rennes, France
⁶ HYDRECO, Laboratoire Environnement de Petit Saut, B.P 823, 97388 Kourou Cedex, French Guiana

^* Corresponding author: sebastien.brosse@univ-tlse3.fr

Received: 18 June 2020
Accepted: 7 January 2021

Abstract

Rivers of French Guiana are still little invaded by non-native fish, but several fish introductions were recently recorded through the development of aquarium fish trade and fish farms. Here we report records of 11 non-native fish species. Among them, four (Cichla monoculus, Heros efasciatus, Mesonauta guyanae and Poecilia reticulata) are established and one of them (Heros efasciatus) is rapidly increasing its spatial range. Two species (Hyphessobrycon eques and Pterophyllum scalare) were not retrieved in recent records and are probably extinct from French Guiana. The establishment status of the five other species (Arapaima gigas, Colossoma macropomum, Cyprinus carpio, Oreochromis mossambicus and Osteoglossum bicirrhosum) is uncertain and only a few specimens were observed in the wild. Nevertheless, these species, intensively reared in nearby countries, belong to highly invasive species able to cause detrimental impacts on recipient ecosystems. Those first occurrences of invasive fish species in French Guiana should therefore act as an early warning for both researchers and environmental managers.