Congo Killies - PageSuite

The Congo, 2,717 miles (4,374 km) long
and up to 755 feet (230 m) deep, is the
deepest and second-largest river in Africa,
and in terms of drainage area and water
flow the second-largest river in the world,
after the Amazon. Its drainage encompasses
not only the two Congo states (Congo
Republic and Democratic Republic of the
Congo, or DRC) but also parts of Angola,
Burundi, Cabinda, Cameroon, Rwanda,
Zambia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and the
Central African Republic.
The Congo already existed when the
dinosaurs ruled the earth, although at
that time it still emptied into the Indian
Ocean. The Rufiji in Tanzania is possibly
the former lower course of the ancient
Congo river. During the Pliocene (around
1.8–5.3 million years ago) the East African
highland plateau came into being and the
flow of the ancient Congo in an easterly
direction was blocked. Traces of former links to the
east can still be detected today: depending on water
level, the East African Lake Tanganyika still empties in
the direction of the Congo via the Lukuga, and there is
evidence that the Malagarasi, for example, used to be
part of the Congo drainage.
After the blocking of the eastern lower course, the
Congo rainforest could no longer drain away its water,
and in time a vast lake developed in central Africa.
It is thought that by one to two million years ago
the mountains separating the lake from the Atlantic
Ocean had been eroded to such an extent that a link
between the inland sea and a westward-flowing river
Above: The map shows
the distribution of
the Aphyosemion s. l.
species in the Congo
Basin.
Right: Dr. Emmanuel
Vreven, ichthyologist
at Belgium’s Royal
Museum for Central
Africa (RMCA), with
his assistant. You need
more than a net to
collect fishes in the
Congo.
MAP: J. V. D. ZEE; MIDDLE: RMCA; BOTTOM: E. VREVEN (RMCA)
Left:
Location for
Aphyosemion
christyi in
the Okapi
Wildlife
Reserve.
AMAZONAS
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