Biodiversidade e conservação da ictiofauna ameaçada de extinção da bacia do rio Paraíba do Sul

The Paraíba do Sul river basin is the second largest basin of Brazilian east spreading over the São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states, however the anthropic actions are contributing for the process of extinction of endemic species. Therefore, the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação de Biodiversidade with other institutions elaborated a National Action Plan (PAN) of Paraíba do Sul, which aimed to preserve these threatened species. In this review, we assembled the recent advances of studies of basic and applied biology of five threatened teleost fish. Beyond the biological data also gathered the main threats, conservation strategies and the possible presence of these species in conservation units. Then, the PAN has been achieving important outcomes showing that the maintenance of the study, especially on the knowledge of the target species is essential to successfully maintain these animals in the basin.