Crenicara

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Crenicara
Crenicara punctulatum, drawing from contributions to the knowledge of the chromids of the Amazon river by Franz Steindachner

Crenicara punctulatum , drawing from contributions to the knowledge of the chromids of the Amazon river by Franz Steindachner

Systematics
Ovalentaria
Order : Cichliformes
Family : Cichlids (Cichlidae)
Subfamily : Cichlinae
Tribe : Geophagini
Genre : Crenicara
Scientific name
Crenicara
Steindachner , 1875

Crenicara , German checkerboard cichlids , is a genus of small South American cichlids found in the central and western Amazon basin and in Guyana . The generic name refers to the sawn edge of the gill cover and is made up of the Greek krene ("comb") and "Acara", another group of cichlids without a serrated edge of the gill cover ,derived from acará , the name for cichlids in a Tupí-Guaraní- Language , together.

features

Crenicara species are moderately elongated, laterally flattened and have a rounded head profile. They become 11 to 12 cm long, with the females remaining smaller. The mouth is small and underneath, the eyes are relatively large. The fish are gray-brown in color and a dark longitudinal band or a series of almost rectangular spots extends from the eye to the tail stalk. The females have orange to reddish pelvic fins. The sawn edge of the gill cover was originally used as a diagnostic feature of the genus. But since other genera also show this feature, u. a. Apistogramma , Microgeophagus and Satanoperca , the four pores of the sensory system on the lower jaw bone (dental) are used today for the diagnosis of the species. In contrast to the Cichlasomatini , the frontmost pore is missing in Crenicara .

species

At the moment (March 2015) two species are included in the genus Crenicara :

For a long time, the fork-tailed checkerboard cichlid ( Dicrossus filamentosus ) was part of the genus Crenicara . Today this species and its relatives, all of which are slimmer and remain smaller than the Crenicara species, are placed in the genus Dicrossus .

literature

  • Sven O. Kullander : Cichlid fishes of the Amazon River drainage of Peru. Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, 1986, page 140, ISBN 91-86510-04-5 .
  • Horst Linke, Wolfgang Staek: American cichlids I, small cichlids. Tetra-Verlag, Bissendorf 1997, ISBN 3-8935-6153-6 .
  • Claus Schaefer: Crenicara. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Ed.) The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 280.

Web links