| Remarks |
The Buraco das Abelhas Cave is an underwater cave, with more than 2000 m of explored conduits and maximum depths of 55 m, located in the southern portion of Serra da Bodoquena National Park, in the rio Miranda lowlands. The only cave entrance so far known opens into a large room with a lake, whose level increases during rain seasons, completely flooding the saloon and only allowing access through cave diving from the entrance.
Trichomycterus dali catfishes can be found in the permanently dark areas zone, calmly swimming in the water column and close to the rocky substrate (bottom and walls). In Buraco das Abelhas, individuals were observed from 12 up to 55 meters deep (maximum depth of the cave system); in Saracura cave, fish swim from near the surface up to a depth of 65 meters, where the main tunnel stops dropping down and become horizontal. The light from halogen underwater spotlights, 50W, used at the time the first specimens were collected, as well as from 10 to 20W HID spotlights used more recently, did not trigger any visible reaction in these fishes. Cave divers also seem not to disturb the fishes, but, as one try to catch them, they start to swim very fast towards the deeper parts of the caves, against the current, near the bottom and into small crevices. Sometimes they were observed digging the soft bottom of Buraco das Abelhas.
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