Alcolapia
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Oreochromis alcalica in the Berlin Aquarium , top left a mouth-brooding female with a distended mouth. |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Alcolapia | ||||||||||||
| Thys van den Audenaerde , 1969 |
Alcolapia , also called sodacichlids in German, is a subgenus of the cichlid genus Oreochromis . Alcolapia species occur in East Africa ( Kenya and Tanzania ) in the soda lakes Magadisee , Nakuru and Natronsee . The scientific name comes from the Greek ("alcalicus") and was given because of the strongly alkaline pH value of the native waters.
features
Alcolapia species have a typical cichlid shape and are 6 to 20 cm long. The dorsal fin of the animals is supported by 9 to 14 spines and 10 to 15 soft rays. The number of spines in the anal fin is 3, those of the soft rays 9 to 11. The number of vertebrae is 27–30. Females are light and shimmering golden, males are darker with partly light blue flanks. The lower lips are enlarged and set off in color.
Way of life
Alcolapia species occur exclusively in the East African soda lakes and the flowing rivers and streams. The water is extremely alkaline (up to 10.5 pH) and also very warm, sometimes over 30 ° C, at hot springs even over 40 ° C. These zones are avoided or swam through quickly. The sodacichlids feed mainly on algae, including the "blue algae" Spirulina , actually a cyanobacterium . They also eat insects that have fallen on the surface of the water and copepods . Like many other African cichlids, they are mouthbrooders . The female who takes care of the mouthbrood lays only a few eggs.
species
- Oreochromis (Alcolapia) alcalica (Hilgendorf, 1905); Lake Natron and Lake Nakuru (introduced)
- Oreochromis (Alcolapia) grahami (Boulenger, 1912); Magadi , Nakuru (introduced) and Natron
- Oreochromis (Alcolapia) latilabris (Seegers & Tichy, 1999); Natron Lake
- Oreochromis (Alcolapia) ndalalani (Seegers & Tichy, 1999); Natron Lake
literature
- Anton Lamboj: Alcolapia Thys, 1968. Sodacichlids. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 30 f.
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ford, AGP, Bullen, TR, Pang, L., Genner, MJ, Bills, R., Flouri, T., Ngatunga, BP, Rüber, L., Schliewen, UK, Seehausen, O., Shechonge, A. , Stiassny, MLJ, Turner, GF & Day, JJ (2019): Molecular phylogeny of Oreochromis (Cichlidae: Oreochromini) reveals mito-nuclear discordance and multiple colonization of adverse aquatic environments . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, April 2019, doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2019.04.008
Web links
- Alcolapia on Fishbase.org (English)