Mapirito River, Monagas, Venezuela
Above: A typical morichal habitat.
The morichal name comes from
the moriche palm, which is a
palm that grows and thrives only
where its roots can be underwater.
These morichales are the best
place to explore for cichlids year-round, because they normally
don’t dry out in the dry season,
and they contain rare cichlids
like Apistogramma guttata and
Satanoperca mapiritensis.
Below: I was amazed when I
found Mikrogeophagus ramirezi
in this morichal in Monagas State,
which is near the Orinoco River
Delta in Venezuela. They normally
come from Apure State, which is
800 kilometers (500 miles) west.
Observing adult rams in nature
has always been a challenge. I
still don’t know why you can see
thousands of juveniles, yet no
adults in the wild; but, at last, we
found a few adults—only they were
800 kilometers from where they
were supposed to be! D
