Chilatherina
| Chilatherina | ||||||||||||
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Male of Chilatherina fasciata |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Chilatherina | ||||||||||||
| Regan , 1914 |
In the genus Chilatherina (Greek cheilos "lip" + Atherina (genus of the earfish)) 11 species of rainbow fish are summarized, which occur only in the north and west of the island of New Guinea .
features
The genus Chilatherina is closely related to Melanotaenia . Mainly both genera differ in the structure of the jawbone and the shape of the head.
The body of Chilatherina species is strongly flattened on the sides, the head relatively pointed. With increasing age, the body shape becomes higher back, especially in males. The coloring of the smaller females is silvery-pale in comparison to the brightly colored males. The fish become sexually mature with a body length of about 5 cm. Most species of the genus are around 10 to 12 cm tall.
Occurrence
Chilatherina occurs exclusively north of the central chain mountains that run from west to east on the island of New Guinea. There, the species colonize the tributaries of the major river systems Mamberamo , Sepik , Ramu and Markham . The highland rainbow fish, which is also found south of the watershed in the upper reaches of the Purari, is an exception . The striped rainbow fish has the largest distribution area and forms local forms of different colors.
Habitats are predominantly open, sunlit areas in flowing waters with deeper pools. The striped rainbow fish and bleher's rainbow fish are also lacustrine . The bottom of the inhabited waters consists of sand or gravel and is often covered with leaves or dead wood. The diet consists mainly of algae, crustaceans, terrestrial insects and aquatic insect larvae.
Chilatherina sentaniensis could no longer be detected in nature in recent years. The only known occurrence in the last decades in a tributary to the Sentani lake was extinguished by sewage from a gold mine in the upper reaches; however, there are aquarium populations.
Systematics
In the genus Chilatherina 11 species are summarized, which can be divided into the following related groups ( clades ):
- Clade 1
- Allen's rainbow fish ( Chilatherina alleni ) Price , 1997; in rivers in the southeastern area of Cenderawasih Bay (West Papua)
- Bleher's rainbow fish ( Chilatherina bleheri ) Allen , 1985; in lakes "Danau Bira" at the foot of the Van Rees Mountains in the Mamberamo Basin (West Papua)
- Striped rainbow fish ( Chilatherina fasciata ) ( Weber , 1913); common in rivers from the Mamberamo Basin to the Markham and Sentani Lake
- Azure rainbow fish ( Chilatherina pricei ) Allen & Renyaan , 1996; on the island of Yapen in the Cenderawasih Bay (West Papua)
- Sentani rainbow fish ( Chilatherina sentaniensis ) ( Weber , 1907); formerly in several tributaries to Lake Sentani (West Papua)
- Clade 2
- Axelrod's rainbow fish ( Chilatherina axelrodi ) Allen , 1979; in the Paul River (formerly: Neumayer River) in the Bewani Mountains in the Sandaun Province (Papua New Guinea)
- Bulolo rainbow fish ( Chilatherina bulolo ) ( Whitley , 1938); punctiform in tributaries of the Markham and Ramu in northeast Papua New Guinea
- Highland rainbow fish ( Chilatherina campsi ) ( Whitley , 1957); widespread in rivers of the Central Highlands in Papua New Guinea
- Silver rainbow fish ( Chilatherina crassispinosa ) ( Weber , 1913); common in rivers from the Mamberamo Basin to the Markham
- Chilatherina pagwiensis Allen & Unmack , 2012; so far only in a tributary of the Sepik in the East Sepik Province (Papua New Guinea)
According to genetic studies, the Lorentz rainbow fish ( Chilatherina lorentzi ) ( Weber , 1907) is most closely related to Melanotaenia japenensis and other Melanotaenia and Glossolepis species from northern New Guinea than to any other rainbow fish. On the other hand, the diamond rainbow fish ( Melanotaenia praecox ) would be genetically assigned to the “ Chilatherina ” clade .
Web links
- Chilatherina on Fishbase.org (English)
literature
- Gerald R. Allen : A revision of the rainbowfish genus Chilatherina (Melanotaeniidae) . In: Rec. West. Aust. Mus. tape 9 , no. 3 , 1981, p. 279-299 .
- Peter Schubert: Chilatherina. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , pp. 222-224.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Johannes Graf: Chilatherina sentaniensis, how do I recognize this species? In: rainbow fish . tape 20 , no. 4 , 2007, ISSN 0935-6460 , p. 98-103 ( regenbogenfische.com [PDF]).
- ^ Unmack, Allen, Johnson: Phylogeny and biogeography of rainbowfishes (Melanotaeniidae) from Australia and New Guinea . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . tape 67 , 2013, p. 15-27 .