style="mso-bidi-font-style:italic">Carcharhinus nicaraguensis). In 1961,
following comparisons of specimens, the Lake Nicaragua Shark was
synonymized
with the widespread
Bull shark
(
C. leucas),
a
species also known for entering freshwater elsewhere around the world.
It had been presumed that the sharks
were trapped within the lake, but this was found to be incorrect in the late
1960s, when it was discovered that they were able to jump along the rapids of
the
San Juan River(which connects
Lake Nicaragua and the
Caribbean
Sea), almost like
salmon.
As evidence of these movements, bull
sharks tagged inside the lake have later been caught in the
open ocean
(and vice versa), with some taking as
little as 7–11 days to complete the journey.
Numerous
other species of fish live in the lake, including at least 16 species of
endemic
cichlids.
A non-native cichlid, atilapia, is
used widely in
aquaculture
within the lake. Owing to the large
amount of waste they produce, and the risk of introducing diseases
to which the native fish species have
no
