The Eastern Province rocky (''Sandelia bainsii''), also known as rocky kurper, is a species of

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

in the family Anabantidae. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

of this species is thought to honour the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

geologist, explorer and soldier

Andrew Geddes Bain Andrew Geddes Bain (baptised 11 June 1797 – 20 October 1864), was a Cape Colony geologist, road engineer, palaeontologist and explorer. Life history The only child of Alexander Bain and Jean Geddes, both of whom died when Bain was still a ...

(1797-1864) who also collected

zoological specimen A zoological specimen is an animal or part of an animal preserved for scientific use. Various uses are: to verify the identity of a (species), to allow study, increase public knowledge of zoology. Zoological specimens are extremely diverse. Exampl ...

s. Bain served as a captain in the

Cape Frontier Wars The Xhosa Wars (also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or the Kaffir Wars) were a series of nine wars (from 1779 to 1879) between the Xhosa people, Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Trekboers from the Dutch colonial empire in what ...

and may have fought the tribal chief Sandile, for whom Castelnau named the genus.

Distribution

It used to be found in small populations dispersed in small areas over a wide distribution throughout the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

, such as in the Gulu River, Igoda River, Yellowwoods River ( Buffalo),

Nahoon River The Nahoon River () is situated in the city of East London on the east coast of South Africa. Geography It is to the east of the Buffalo River harbour, and is to the west of Gonubie River. The suburb of Nahoon is on its west bank and Beacon B ...

Kowie River The Kowie River (Coyi in Xhosa) is a river in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It has its source in the hills of the "Grahamstown Heights" from where it flows in a south-easterly direction draining the major part of the Bathurst region, reaching ...

, Koonap River,

Kat River The Kat River () is a tributary of the Great Fish River, that drains the southern slopes of the Winterberg in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Etymology Kat, meaning "cat", is a translation of the Khoekhoen word "huncu", that apparently ...

( Great Fish) and the

Tyhume River The Tyhume River is a river in Amathole District Municipality in the central part of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It springs in the forested mountains of Hogsback, part of the Amatola Mountains, and runs down the Tyhume River Val ...

( Keiskamma). It is doubtful whether those fragmented populations will be viable in the future because they find themselves under a number of threats from agricultural practices, pollution and

invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...

. It is found in the Bloukrans River in the

Blaauwkrantz Nature Reserve The Blaauwkrantz Nature Reserve is a small protected area near Makhanda (Grahamstown) designated for the purpose of conserving the endangered Eastern Province rocky. Nearby are the Waters Meeting Nature Reserve and Buffalo Kloof Protected ...

References

Sandelia Freshwater fish of South Africa Endemic fish of South Africa Fish described in 1861 Taxa named by François-Louis Laporte, comte de Castelnau Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Anabantiformes-stub