Hypselecara
| Hypselecara | ||||||||||||
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Hypselecara temporalis |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Hypselecara | ||||||||||||
| Kullander , 1986 |
Hypselecara is a genus of South American cichlids . The distribution area of the genus includes the Amazon basin , French Guiana and the upper Orinoco . The generic name is made up of "hypselos" ( Gr. For high) and "Acara", the Guaraní name for cichlids and refers to the high-backed shape of the fish.
features
Hypselecara species are medium-sized cichlids and reach lengths of around 30 cm. Females stay significantly smaller. Their body is oval, flattened on the sides and high, the head has a steep, rounded forehead line. Colored markings, such as a black longitudinal band, as well as a dark spot on the middle of the body sides and on the base of the tail, are not always visible depending on the mood. Males are higher back and can form a large frontal hump with age. Young fish are pointed-headed and gray-brown in color. Characteristic features of the genus are a high-contrast coloration and bright red eyes during brood.
Reproduction
Similar to Cichlasoma , the Hypselecara species are substrate spawners . They spawn mainly on sloping or vertical surfaces and form a mother family, whereby the female takes care of the clutch directly while the male guards the territory . The larvae hatch after about three days and are then embedded in a pit dug in the ground. After another seven days, they swim freely.
Systematics
The genus Hypselecara was established in 1986 by the Swedish ichthyologist Sven O. Kullander for two species originally assigned to the genus Cichlasoma . Like the flag cichlids ( Mesonauta ), angelfish ( Pterophyllum ) and the discus cichlids ( Symphysodon ), Hypselecara belongs to the tribe of Heroini among the New World cichlids ( Cichlinae ) .
Two types have been described so far:
- Hypselecara coryphaenoides (Heckel, 1840)
- Emerald cichlid ( Hypselecara temporalis (Günther, 1862) ), ( type species )
literature
- Sven O. Kullander : Cichlid fishes of the Amazon River drainage of Peru. Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, 1986, page 321, ISBN 91-86510-04-5
- Horst Linke, Wolfgang Staek: American cichlids II, large cichlids. Tetra-Verlag, Bissendorf 1997, ISBN 3-8974-5101-8 .
- Claus Schaefer: Hypselecara. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 509.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hernán López-Fernández, Kirk O. Winemiller, Rodney L. Honeycutt: Multilocus phylogeny and rapid radiations in Neotropical cichlid fishes (Perciformes: Cichlidae: Cichlinae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Volume 55, Issue 3, June 2010, Pages 1070-1086 doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2010.02.020
Web links
- Hypselecara on Fishbase.org (English)