The biodiversity of Indonesia
Indonesia is home to a wide variety of different beautiful animals, among them you’ll find the in aquariums popular clown loach? The native home of the clown loach, Chromobotia macracanthus, is the two largest Indonesia islands, Sumatra and Borneo. The water in these environments is fairly fast moving and Clown Loaches therefore appreciate currents in the aquarium.
Indonesia is located on both sides of the equator in South Eastern Asia and Oceania. Indonesia consist of about 6000 inhabited island and about 11 500 more uninhabited islands. The most well known of all 17500 islands are Borneo, Java, New Guinea, Sumatra and Sulawesi. Kalimantan is the name of the Indonesian part of Borneo, an island Indonesia share with Brunei and Malaysia. New Guinea is shared with Papua New Guinea.
Indonesia has two distinct monsoonal wet and dry seasons, with the mountains receiving the largest amounts of rainfall. The average temperature varies little throughout the year and you can expect it to stay around 26-30°C (79-86°F) during the day.
The clown loach is not the only creature that feels at home in Indonesia the country actually supports the world’s second highest level of biodiversity (after Brazil). The biodiversity is in part due to the fact that the Asian and the Australian Faune meet in Indonesia. 40% of all mammals in Indonesia are endemic to the area and so are a lot of plant, fish, bird and insect species.
The country is prune to vulcanic eruption and earthquakes. Indonesia is home to 150 active vulcano among which the most famous are Krakatoa and Tambora who both have had devestating eruptions during the 19th century. On the positive side, the volcanic ash distributed by volcanoes is highly beneficial for plant life which forms the base of the rich ecosystems found in the region.
A part of Indonesia is called Sundaland by zoologists and this area is similar to the naearby Asian mainland. The lakes, rivers and swamps of this region are home to roughly 1,000 scientifically described species of fish of which nearly 200 were discovered during the last decade.
The part of Indonesia known as Wallacea represents the biogeographical transitional zone between Sundaland to the west and the Australasian zone to the east, and includes islands such as Sulawesi and the Maluku archipelago. Parts of the Nusa Tenggara islands are also considered Wallacea territory by zoologists. Wallacea is home to 300 fish species among which 25% are endemic to the area. There are for instance seven endemic goby species and two endemic species of halfbeak living in South Sulawesi. The Maluku archipelago and Nusa Tenggara is still far from thoroughly explored by science so you can expect to add many new endemic species to the list during coming years.
