Haplotaxodon microlepis

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Haplotaxodon microlepis
Haplotaxodon microlepis.JPG

Haplotaxodon microlepis

Systematics
Order : Cichliformes
Family : Cichlids (Cichlidae)
Subfamily : Pseudocrenilabrinae
Tribe : Perissodini
Genre : Haplotaxodon
Type : Haplotaxodon microlepis
Scientific name
Haplotaxodon microlepis
Boulenger , 1906

Haplotaxodon microlepis is a species of African cichlid that is endemic to the East African Lake Tanganyika .

features

Haplotaxodon microlepis can reach a maximum length of 26 cm, whereby the females usually remain somewhat smaller and are less strongly colored. The fish are elongated and strongly flattened on the sides. Typical of the species are the large eyes, the upward-pointing, almost vertical mouth and the small scales that all have perissodini. The body and fins of Haplotaxodon microlepis are silvery in color, with bluish, shiny scales and yellow lines and spots. The back is brownish. The pelvic fins and the caudal fin are drawn out pointed.

Way of life

Haplotaxodon microlepis lives individually or in pairs on rocky coasts down to depths of 30 meters and feeds on pelagic shrimp, copepods , insect larvae and young clupeids ( Limnothrissa miodon + Stolothrissa tanganicae ), which occur in huge schools in the lake. Haplotaxodon Microlepis is a biparental mouthbrooders in which the 100 to 200 eggs and larvae are taken for the first ten to twelve days by the female in the mouth and become larger larvae are then also taken up by the male.

Systematics

Genus and species were in 1906 by the Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger described . In 1999 the Japanese ichthyologists Takahashi and Nakaya described another species of the genus, Haplotaxodon trifasciatus . Together with some highly specialized, scale-eating cichlids, the genus belongs to the Perissodini tribe , where it is the sister group of all other genera.

literature

  • Søren Neergaard: Tanganyika - Cichlids . Kernen Verlag, 1982, ISBN 3-8740-1005-8 .
  • Georg Zurlo: Haplotaxodon microlepis. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 450.

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