The Fishes of Zimbabwe and their Biology

Marshall, Brian

Title: The Fishes of Zimbabwe and their Biology
Title: Smithiana Monograph no.3
Creator: Marshall, Brian
Subject: Estuarine fishes -- Zimbabwe
Subject: Estuarine fishes -- Africa, Southern
Subject: Fishes -- Africa, Southern -- Identification
Subject: Estuaries -- Africa, Southern
Date Issued: 2010
Date: 2010
Type: text
Type: book
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167948
Identifier: vital:41524
Description: The first comprehensive book on the fishes of Zimbabwe appeared in 1961 and was written by Rex Jubb. He followed it with a major treatise on the fishes of southern Africa published in 1967. These books were published at a time when interest in fishes – partly stimulated by the creation of Lake Kariba –was growing, and they were welcomed by anglers and scientists alike. Zimbabwean ichthyology progressed rapidly during the years following their publication and knowledge about our fishes grew steadily. New insights and understanding of their systematics led to numerous taxonomic revisions, bringing with them inevitable changes to their scientific names. At the same time increased collecting meant that new species were being added to the Zimbabwean list. By the early 1970s Jubb’s books had become outdated and there was a clear need for a new volume on the fishes of this country. The National Museums and Monuments met this need by publishing Graham Bell-Cross’ The Fishes of Rhodesia in 1976. This book was available at a remarkably low price and such was its popularity that it was soon out of print. It rapidly became outdated as well and was revised by John Minshull as the Fishes of Zimbabwe, published in 1988. This version had a number of new features such as the inclusion of exotic species and species discovered in the country since 1976, as well as name changes brought about by new developments in taxonomy. It, too, was available at a very low price and has proved to be very popular; the demand was so great that it was reprinted without alteration in the 1990s. By this time, however, it had also become outdated and there was a need for yet another revision, or for a completely new type of book. I have chosen the latter option in preparing this book, since there seemed little point in attempting to revise the earlier ones within their original format. I felt that it would not be desirable to produce another field guide type of book that would have to compete with Paul Skelton’s superb volume, A Complete Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of Southern Africa, first published in 1993, with a second edition eight years later. Instead, I decided that I should try to summarise the existing data about fishes in Zimbabwe. My dealings with students and inexperienced fish biologists has made it clear that many of them do not know what work has been done, or not done, on Zimbabwe’s fishes and they are not familiar with the literature. Much of it is, in any case, to be found in obscure publications that are not readily available in Zimbabwean libraries, which have declined in recent years and no longer subscribe to major international journals or even to local ones. This makes it very difficult to keep up with information or to track it down. I am aware, of course, that such a book will never be complete and may already be outdated at the time of its publication, but I hope that it will supply the basic background information for anyone interested in Zimbabwean fishes and provide a platform from which further studies can be launched. Wherever possible, I have used only data from Zimbabwe, although there may be an extensive literature from other countries for widespread or economically important species, such as Clarias gariepinus or Oreochromis mossambicus. This was a conscious decision because I wanted to summarise what is known about the fish in this country, so that other workers can assess what still needs to be done. Nevertheless, I have used some data from outside Zimbabwe, especially for fish from the upper Zambezi because of its relevance to our situation. As far as possible I have tried to use only published works as references, with the exception of university theses and some institutional reports, since most unpublished work is generally difficult to locate and ephemeral. The scientific names of fishes often change as systematic knowledge advances and the reader will note that there have been many changes since Bell-Cross & Minshull (1988) was published. Common names are a problem because of local variations and anglers in particular have various names (or nicknames) for popular angling species; I have used the standard names with these other names included in brackets where necessary.
Format: 508 pages
Format: pdf
Publisher: South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB)
Language: English
Relation: Smithiana Monograph
Relation: Marshall. 2010. The Fishes of Zimbabwe and their Biology. Smithiana Monograph No. 3, 302 pp
Relation: Smithiana Monograph number 3 978-0-620-47535-8
Rights: © 2010 South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity
Rights: Apart from citations for the purposes of research or review, no part of this book may be repro-duced in any form, mechanical or electronic, without prior permission in writing from SAIAB

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