A group of 15 cave explorers, including French and Chinese experts, have spotted a rare fish species known as golden-line barbell in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
According to the Xinhua News, the group found this rare fish species during a 9-day exploration tour of caves in Hechi City in Guangxi. The experts explored eight caves in total, and found the rare cave fish golden-line barbell in Zhai’ao village in Bagong township.
Group leader Chen Lixin revealed that this fish prefers to live in small numbers in clean water free from pollution. The group also spotted a type of rare shrimp, indicating that this region is free from pollution.
Researchers also found stalactite in the caves. According to Chen, one stalactite column was about 18 meters high.
Golden-line Barbell fish are only found in underground Karst caves in China’s Yunnan Province. According to experts, this fish has lost all pigmentation as well as the eyes due to the lack of light in its environment. It feeds on planktons or aquatic insects in water. The body of this fish is transparent, which allows people to see its inner organs from outside. Its cirrus is short. It has a strange apophysis present on its back and head. This apophysis is actually a special sensor that allows the fish to sense its cave environment.
Chinese and French experts found rare blind fish and shrimps in caves in south China's Guangxi pic.twitter.com/YHBdeYnWZC
— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) January 26, 2018
China is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, including marine species. The Qiandao Lake (Thousand-Island Lake) in China’s Chun’an County, Zhejiang Province, is home to nearly 114 known fish species. This lake covers approximately 573 square kilometers area. The economic value of all the known fish species found in Qiandao Lake is over 4 billion yuan (600 million U.S. dollars).
