U Tin Win (L) and Dr Ralf Britz. Mastacembelus tinwini.

A NEW species of fish discovered in Myanmar has officially been named after U Tin Win, the local man who first found it in Kayin State in 2003.

Dr Ralf Britz, a German fish scientist from the Department of Zoology at the Natural History Museum in London, recently finished four years of research confirming that the fish was a new species.

Once the fish’s status as a new species was confirmed, Dr Britz named it Mastacembelus tinwini, after U Tin Win.

It is the first species in Myanmar to be named in honour of its discoverer.

U Tin Win – the managing director of Hein Aquarium, which has been exporting ornamental fish from Myanmar since 1998 – said he found the new species near the town of Kawkayeik in 2003 while he was searching for another kind of fish.

“The fish is similar to some kinds of nga mwe do (spinal eel) I had seen before but they are not the same. I thought it might be a new species so I brought it to Yangon so Dr Britz could research and identify it,” U Tin Win told The Myanmar Times.

Dr Britz has visited Myanmar four times since 1996 and has often sought U Tin Win’s help in identifying local species.

During a visit in 2003 Dr Britz himself discovered a new species of fish in Indawgyi Lake in Kachin State, which he named Mastacembelus pantherinus. He took a specimen back to London along with a sample of the species U Tin Win had found.

“There are some fish species we have discovered together but this is the first that has been named after someone from Myanmar,” said U Tin Win. “Other new species have been named after places and other animals in the country.”

Since formal studies of Myanmar fish started in 1860, about 300 species have been recognised, he said, adding that he reckoned there were many more species of fish in the country that had not yet been identified.