Rivulus | |
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Conservation status | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Cyprinodontiformes |
Family: | Rivulidae |
Genus: | Rivulus |
Species: | R. marmoratus |
Binomial name | |
Rivulus marmoratus Poey, 1880 |
The mangrove killifish or mangrove rivulus, Kryptolebias marmoratus (formerly Rivulus marmoratus)[1], is a species of fish in the Aplocheilidae family. It lives along the east coast of North, Central and South America, from Florida to Brazil. It is about 75 mm long.
The mangrove rivulus is a U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service Species of Concern. Species of Concern are those species about which the U.S. Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, has some concerns regarding status and threats, but for which insufficient information is available to indicate a need to list the species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).
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Scientists have recently discovered that Mangrove rivulus can spend up to sixty-six consecutive days out of water, which it typically spends inside fallen logs, breathing air through its skin.[2] It enters burrows inside the trees created by insects where it relaxes its territorial, aggressive behavior. During this time it alters its gills so that it can retain water and nutrients, while nitrogen waste is excreted through the skin. The change is reversed once they re-enter the water.[3][4]
The species consists mostly of hermaphrodites which usually reproduce by self-fertilisation, but males do exist,[5] and there is strong genetic evidence for occasional outcrossing.[6]
This species is extremely vulnerable to habitat modification and fragmentation, environmental alteration, and human development/encroachment.
Taylor (1999) is the last status review for the species.