Commonly kept aquarium fish seen in their wild environment of a small river in Nicaragua.
I have always been fascinated by freshwater habitats and have wanted to swim in a tropical river teeming with life. My desire came true in February of this year when we visited the island of Ometepe in Nicaragua. This friendly Central American country is more known for its volcanoes and coffee than its diving opportunities. That didn’t stop me from finding a beautiful clear stream flowing through the jungle in between the two volcanos that make up this magical island sitting in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.
The two volcanoes of Ometepe, Maderas on left and Concepción on right, anchor this island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua
The local people in the area view the stream area by the road side as a swimming hole and place to do their laundry. We showed up on our rented scooter and to their surprise I promptly donned my wetsuit, mask, fins and snorkel and jumped in, underwater camera in tow. One young girl in particular took an interest in me and promptly kicked off her shoes and dove in after me and swam along for a while.
As soon as I put my head underwater and started looking around I knew I was going to have a satisfying couple of hours. While my partner Kim took off on the scooter and explored some back roads and had some adventures of her own I contentedly snorkeled my way upstream into the thickest part of the forested little stream.
Tetras, Mollies and Cichlids were every where.
It was such a delight seeing fish that I had kept in aquariums in the past in this natural habitat. The water was quite clear, but it took very little to stir up a lot of detritus, so I slowly pulled and kicked my way up stream. Everywhere I looked there was life. I was secretly hoping to see a Boa constrictor on the vines dangling down into the water. But I didn’t on this trip. Maybe next time.
While parrots screeched in the trees overhead I relished every aspect of this new aquatic underworld, including diving down under submerged logs and vegetation as I explored as far as I could. At the end of the first day just as I was about to turn around for he swim back downstream I looked under a log. There to my surprise was a large Plecostomus. This well-known algae eater is commonly kept in aquariums to keep the glass clean. I was happy to see it right on the submerged wood which is the type of substrate I had always heard was preferred by them.
Considering the amount of farming and agriculture nearby and the human activity I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of life in this small stream on an island on a lake.
I can only imagine what the life would be like in more remote areas of the Central American jungles.
Footnote.
Just a few weeks after we returned from this magical island we learned of the civil unrest that began to unfold in Nicaragua. Not covered much by the news outlets in North America, we were kept informed by our new friends that we made on Ometepe of the protests and subsequent tragedies. We hope it continues to settle down now, so the awesome people of this country can go back to their peaceful lives. We hope to return soon and support the fledgling tourism industry there.
Amazing images once again, Eiko. And your photo of the volcanoes was an interesting point of view. I was on Ometepe in February, and was saddened to hear of the recent unrest in Nicaragua. I heard of it through CNN Español.
What a great post. Thank you for share with us.
Great aquarium , I like it. Thank you so much .
Nice information, thanks for sharing good content.
good work continue
Looking natural, I like aquarium plan. Thanks for sharing it.
Wow, what an amazing underwater adventure! Seeing those familiar aquarium fish thriving in their natural habitat is incredible. Swimming with a local girl adds a whole other layer of magic. Hope Nicaragua finds peace soon – would love to see more adventures on Ometepe!