Fishes of the Cusiana River (Meta River basin, Colombia)

In Colombia, priority conservation areas have been designated, from which the Cusiana river sub-basin is one of them. This study presents an updated checklist and identification key for the fishes in the area. The checklist was assembled through direct examination of specimens deposited in the Colombian ichthyological collections. A total of 2020 lots from 167 different localities from the Cusiana River sub-basin were examined and ranged from 153 to 2970 m in elevation. The use of databases to develop lists of fish species is not entirely reliable, therefore taxonomic verification of specimens in collections is essential. These results will allow evaluating other accounts of the Orinoquia, which are not categorized as areas of importance for conservation in Colombia.