This tranquil world is home to specialised cave fishes, like the eyeless Golden Barb. China may have more unique kinds of cave evolved fishes than anywhere else on earth. Above the water table, ancient caverns abandoned by the river slowly fill up with stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactites form as trickling water deposits tiny quantities of rock over hundreds or thousands of years. Stalagmites grow up where lime-laden drips hit the cave floor.