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Circle of
Life: Kooye Minnow The Kooye Minnow has a thin and long body. If we observe it from its lateral, we will find out that it’s pretty flat. The head of Kooye Minnow is small and round, and the top of its head is a little bit rising. In addition, its eyes are small, and the color around the pupil of its eyes is silver white. Additionally, the color around its pectoral, ventral, and anal fin is lightly red. The height of Kooye Minnow, so called “Bitter Flower,” is about 15 to 25 centimeters. It likes to scrape the algae on the stone by using its chin. When stirring, scales of it reflect sun’s stunning lights. This is the explanation why it is called as the “firefly in the water.” The temperature of Kooye Minnow’s inhabiting areas is lower than 20 degrees, which locates approximately at the above stream of the river. Kooye Minnow requires a high quality of water for surviving. Their main sources of foods for them are little insects in the rocks’ seam, which include diatom, larva of the mayfly, and germander. However, Kooye Minnow can no longer continue to exist in our contemporary world. Because of excessively catching and slaughtering indiscriminately, the amount of Kooye Minnow is getting lesser. Till nowadays, Kooye Minnow has been announced as one of the “endangered wild animals.”
The range and distribution of it roughly includes Gaobing stream in the southern Taiwan, and Hualian stream, Xiuguluan stream, and Peinan stream in the eastern Taiwan. Kooye Minnow prefers inhabiting and perching around rivers, where there are huge stones and rocks, for there are several different kinds of diatom, larva of mayfly, and germander near the stone and the rock. If we want to see Kooye Minnow, we have to preserve the fresh and unpolluted stream, since it can only stay alive in the uncontaminated river and creek. The breeding season of Kooye Minnow is from January to June of each year. And the climax of it is during April to June. Little fishes are very afraid of sun light. It’s when they form the melanin in their body, can they swim with no fear for sun light. Even though Kooye Minnow is very fragile, it often brings us many surprises in the stream and valley of the high mountain. The methods, which are provided for us to protect the fish, are trying not to fish them with illegal tools, such as electricity, poison, or dynamite. If we don’t do these kinds of cruel and evil things, there would be more and more Kooye Minnow living on earth. What's more, everyone can appreciate how beautiful they are. And our Kooye Minnow will never be classified into the category of “endangered wild animals.”
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