“Kooye Minnow” is a kind of very famous fish of fresh water in the mountain streams in Taiwan. In fact, we scarcely call it “Kooy Minnow,” since there is less people know this name. Generally, people prefer calling it “biter flower.” When turning itself over the moss in the water, the wrenched body of Kooye Minnow will become the reflector of sun, glistening, gleaming, and flashing with the waves. Like an enthralling magic show, one can hardly deny the attraction and allurement of it. Thus, it receives the pet name of the “firefly in the water.” The official name of Kooye Minnow is “varicorhinus alticorpus.” We commonly call it either “bitter flower,” or “ku-wei.” The usual size of its body is in the region of 10- 25 centimeters. The largest size of it is approximately 45 centimeters. Varicorhinus alticorpus in Taiwan is very familiar for the shovel shape of its lower jaw. Because Kooye Minnow requires rigorously for its environment, it will be unable to survive in the unhygienic water. Therefore, Kooye Minnow’s surviving or not could be explicated as the target of the quality of the water. To sum up, it’s very difficult to breed Kooye Minnow because of it.

Acquired Characters of the Ecological Habits

　　The distribution of this kind of species is very broad. We can find out the trace of it almost everywhere in Taiwan, except in the little rivers and creeks of Henchun peninsula. However, Kooye Minnow can mostly be found out in the upper stream of the river; they can be rarely observed in the middle or lower stream. Or maybe we can find out some of them in winter. Kooye Minnow likes to inhabit in the area where there is clean, limpid, and unpolluted brooks with high amount of oxygen. The most suitable temperature of its living water ranges from 9-22℃. Kooye Minnow prefers to move around, and buddle at the bottom of the cold water, since there is wider region to move about and forage. In addition, owing to the heavily dropping terrain, there are numerous huge stones at the bottom of the river. The main living sources of Kooye Minnow are organic impurities, aquatic insects, alga… etc.

Encountering Crisis

　　Because Kooye Minnow requires a serious environment for growing, it can stay alive in the cruel and contaminated environment, which indirectly influences the breeding of it. As long as the environmental condition is not good enough, it cannot grow. After interviewing with Mr. Jian, qing-hui, who is the head of Taixing village, we sum up few presumptions and fundamental ideas about the crisis that Kooye Minnow has to face.
       1 The temperature of the water that Kooye Minnow acquires ranges from 9-22℃. Thus, most of it can simply survive in either the upper stream of the river, or the small streams in the mountain region.
       2 Since it demands rigorously the high quality of the water, it cannot continue to exist once the source of the water is contaminated.
       3 Because its meat is very delicious, some people love to catch it by poison, or electricity.
       4 The growing speed of it is very slow. And it’s extremely difficult to breed and grow.