Astatotilapia calliptera
| Astatotilapia calliptera | ||||||||||||
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Males from Lake Chilingali near Nkhotakota . |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Astatotilapia calliptera | ||||||||||||
| ( Günther , 1894) |
Astatotilapia calliptera ( Syn .: Haplochromis callipterus ; Gr .: "Kallos" = beautiful, "pteron" = wing, fin) is a species of cichlid that grows in the East African Lake Malawi , in Lake Chiuta , in Lake Chilwa , in the lower Zambezi , in Búzi , Lukuga , Lundi , Pungwe and Save occurs.
features
Astatotilapia calliptera becomes 11 to a maximum of 15 cm long. The species has the typical shape of a Haplochromis relative with a beefy head and a slightly upturned mouth. The teeth are small and usually two-pointed. They stand in three to five rows in each jaw. The gill rakes are short and wide apart, seven to nine sit on the first gill arch. Astatotilapia calliptera is brass-colored, olive-green or grayish in color with 8 to 9 olive-colored vertical bands on the sides of the body. A dark band, which is almost always visible, extends from the eyes to the corners of the mouth. The upper head region from the upper lip to the base of the dorsal fin is reddish brown. The underside of the head is blue. The upper section of the dorsal fin is soot-colored, the lower part is spotted orange, the tips of the dorsal fin rays are red. The caudal fin is dirty yellow with orange spots. The anal fin is soot-colored at the base, yellow on the outside and has two to eight orange egg spots. An indistinct black spot can sometimes be seen on the gill cover . Males in spawning mood are bright yellow, the head and lower back of the body and the tail stalk are blue. The egg spots are bright orange, the dorsal and anal fins are red and blue.
- Fins formula : dorsal XIII – XV / 9–10, anal III / 7–8.
- Scale formula : SL 29–33.
Way of life
Astatotilapia calliptera lives mainly in overgrown, shallow water regions. It feeds on invertebrates , algae, plants, small fish and plankton . Like almost all Malawi cichlids, Astatotilapia calliptera is a mouthbrooder .
Systematics
The fish species was described in 1894 by the German zoologist Albert Günther under the name Chromis callipterus and later assigned to the genus Astatotilapia , which is not a monophylum. Together with its sister species Astatotilapia swynnertoni and Astatotilapia tweddlei , Astatotilapia calliptera belongs to the "Lake Malawi radiation" of the East African cichlids, so it is closely related to the colorful mbunas , which are known as aquarium fish.
literature
- Paul Harvey Skelton: A Complete Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of Southern Africa. Struik Publishers, 2001, ISBN 1-8687-2643-6 .
- Erwin Schraml: Astatotilapia calliptera. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 101 f.
Web links
- Astatotilapia calliptera on Fishbase.org (English)
- Astatotilapia calliptera onthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted By: Bills, R., Kazembe, J. & Marshall, B., 2009. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
Individual evidence
- ↑ M. Matschiner, Z. Musilová, JMI Barth, Z. Starostová, W. Salzburger, M. Steel, R. Bouckaert: Bayesian Phylogenetic Estimation of Clade Ages Supports Trans-Atlantic Dispersal of Cichlid Fishes. In: Systematic Biology. Volume 66, No. 1, 2017, pp. 3-22. DOI: 10.1093 / sysbio / syw076 . P. 156 and 158 in the supplement .