Gnathochromis pfefferi

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Gnathochromis pfefferi
Drawing of the species from the first description by George Albert Boulenger.

Drawing of the species from the first description by George Albert Boulenger.

Systematics
Order : Cichliformes
Family : Cichlids (Cichlidae)
Subfamily : Pseudocrenilabrinae
Tribe : Tropheini
Genre : Gnathochromis
Type : Gnathochromis pfefferi
Scientific name
Gnathochromis pfefferi
( Boulenger , 1898)

Gnathochromis pfefferi ( Syn .: Limnochromis pfefferi , Haplochromis pfefferi ) is a species of cichlid that is endemic to the East African Lake Tanganyika .

features

Gnathochromis pfefferi can reach a length of 14 cm. It is flattened on the sides, high back and has a pointed head. While the females are rather monotonous gray, the males have a dark top of the head and a darker back, show seven to nine horizontal stripes reaching to the middle of the side and have a lighter, bluish shimmering lower half of the body. The "cheeks" are light, the gill covers patterned with red dots. The dorsal fin is dark with a lemon-yellow edge. Yellow egg spots appear on the anal fin. The caudal fin shows transparent points, its upper and lower edges are dark.

Way of life

Gnathochromis pfefferi is very rare, lives in the transition zone between rocky banks and muddy sandy soils at depths between 6 and 15 meters and feeds mainly on shrimp. Like all other Tropheini , Gnathochromis pfefferi is a mouthbrooder . The eggs and fry, up to about 0.9 cm in length, are protected by the female in the mouth.

Systematics

The species was in 1898 by the British ichthyologist George Albert Boulenger under the scientific name Paratilapia pfefferi described , and later the genus Limnotilapia assigned. In 1974, Poll and Thys placed it in the genus Haplochromis because of the structure of the teeth, and in 1991 it was placed in the genus Gnathochromis by Maréchal and Max Poll . Within the African cichlids ( Pseudocrenilabrinae ) the species is assigned to the tribe Tropheini in various phylogenetic studies , while the type species of Gnathochromis , Gnathochromis permaxillaris, belongs to the tribe Limnochromini . The genus of Gnathochromis pfefferi will therefore have to change again in the future.

literature

  • Søren Neergaard: Tanganyika - Cichlids . Kernen Verlag, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-87401-005-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Sturmbauer, Ursula Hainz, Sanja Baric, Erik Verheyen, Walter Salzburger: Evolution of the tribe Tropheini from Lake Tanganyika: synchronized explosive speciation producing multiple evolutionary parallelism. In: Hydrobiologia. doi: 10.1023 / A: 1024680201436
  2. ↑ TD Kocher, JA Conroy, KR McKaye, JR Stauffer, SF Lockwood: Evolution of NADH dehydrogenase in East African cichlid fish. In: Mol Phylogenet Evol. 4 (4), 1995, p. 420.
  3. ^ W. Salzburger, A. Meyer, S. Baric, E. Verheyen, C. Sturmbauer: Phylogeny of the Lake Tanganyika cichlid species flock and its relationship to the Central and East African haplochrominecichlid fish faunas. In: Syst Biol. 51 (1), 2002, pp. 1-23.
  4. ↑ Nina Duftner, Stephan Koblmüller, Christian Sturmbauer: Evolutionary Relationships of the Limnochromini, a Tribe of Benthic Deepwater Cichlid Fish Endemic to Lake Tanganyika, East Africa. In: Journal of Molecular Evolution. Volume 60, Number 3, March 2005, pp. 277-289. doi: 10.1007 / s00239-004-0017-8

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