Paratilapia polleni
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Fully grown specimen of Paratilapia polleni in a show aquarium in an Italian natural history museum |
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| Bleeker, 1868 |
Paratilapia polleni ( synonym Paracara Bleeker, 1878 ) is a species of cichlid that is endemic to Madagascar .
features
Paratilapia polleni becomes a maximum of 30 cm long, with females remaining slightly smaller. The fish have a high-backed body covered by comb scales. The pointed, easily protruding (protractile) mouth is covered with numerous conically shaped teeth. The conical teeth and the lack of a tooth plate on the fourth ceratobranchiale ("pharyngeal jaw") distinguish Paratilapia polleni from all other Malagasy cichlids. The fish are dark in color and show numerous metallic blue or golden shiny spots. Young fish show a tilapia spot .
Way of life
Paratilapia polleni is found in various bodies of water, including small and medium-sized rivers, lakes and the sometimes slightly brackish water of the Canal des Pangalanes . The fish feed on aquatic invertebrates, insects that have fallen on the surface of the water, and smaller fish. Paratilapia polleni is monogamous and a substrate spawner . The clutch consists of several thousand rosy eggs that are connected to each other with filaments, a feature that is not found in the clutch of other species of cichlids. After hatching, the young fish are looked after by their parents for a relatively long time. The juvenile fish become sexually mature at around 12 months of age. Males are then about 5.5 cm long, females slightly smaller.
Systematics
The species and genus were described in 1868 by the Dutch naturalist Pieter Bleeker . In the following years, around 90 other species from mainland Africa were assigned to the genus, but later all of them were placed in other genera. Some previously undescribed cichlid forms are known from Madagascar, e.g. B. from the lakes Alaotra and Ihotry , which could be assigned to the genus Paratilapia in the future . Paratilapia is the basal sister genus of the four other cichlid genera of the subfamily Ptychochrominae .
Danger
Like many other Malagasy cichlids, Paratilapia polleni is also endangered according to the IUCN (Vulnerable). The entire range, especially in the west and north-east of Madagascar, is highly fragmented.
literature
- PV Loiselle: Cichlidae: Paratilapia, Marakely, Fony, Fiamanga and Trondro Mainty , pages 872–873 in Steven M. Goodman, Jonathan P. Benstead, Harald Schütz: The Natural History of Madagascar , University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226- 30307-1
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stiassny & Sparks, 2006: Phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the endemic Malagasy genus Ptychochromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae), with the description of five new species and a diagnosis for Katria, new genus . American Museum Novitates, n.3535, p. 1-55
- ↑ Paratilapia polleni in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2004. Posted by: Loiselle, P. & participants of the CBSG / ANGAP CAMP "Faune de Madagascar" workshop, Mantasoa, Madagascar 2001, 2004. Accessed December 18, 2015.
Web links
- Paratilapia polleni on Fishbase.org (English)