Pelvicachromis sacrimontis
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Pelvicachromis sacrimontis , adult female |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pelvicachromis sacrimontis | ||||||||||||
| Paulo , 1977 |
Pelvicachromis sacrimontis is a cichlid that occurs in southeastern Nigeria between the Niger and Cross River estuaries.
features
Pelvicachromis sacrimontis reaches a maximum length of 10 cm, has a slender, elongated body and a more rounded forehead profile than the purple perch ( Pelvicachromis pulcher ). The head and body are light brown to gray-brown, with the back slightly darker. At the end of the gill cover there is a dark spot with often blue iridescent edges. The upper lip is brownish to blackish, the lower lip gray-brown and red in the red morphine. A black longitudinal band runs from the rear end of the gill cover to the caudal fin. A second longitudinal ligament extends from the top of the head to the end of the dorsal fin. Between the dark longitudinal ligaments there is a whitish to yellow longitudinal ligament that reaches the width of the lower dark longitudinal ligament or is slightly narrower. There are other dark stripes between the eyes and between the front edge of the eyes and the upper lip. The upper edge of the eye is golden. The pectoral fins are transparent to light yellow. The pelvic fins are reddish to purple with a blue front edge. Some specimens show some black spots in the upper section of the caudal fin and / or in the soft rayed area of the dorsal fin.
The fish show a clear sexual dimorphism and three color morphs can be clearly distinguished in the males . The dorsal fin and the upper area of the caudal fin have a red border in the males, underneath there is a white stripe, which can also be iridescent bluish in the caudal fin . The anal fin is bluish or purple with a reddish front edge. In the case of the reddish morph, the lower half of the head, the sides of the body and the belly up to the point of the anal fin are red. The yellow morph has yellow to bluish cheeks, a yellow throat, the sides of the body and belly are yellow and there is a red spot on the belly, which can disappear in stressed or suppressed specimens. In the green morph, the yellow parts of the yellow morph are greenish.
The females of the three color morphs differ only slightly. Their dorsal fin is dark to dark orange in the hard-rayed area and yellow to transparent in the soft-rayed area. There is no color-coded edge of the fin. During courtship, the hard-beamed section can take on a dark gray to blackish color. The caudal and anal fins are transparent yellowish. The belly is red, but light after spawning and during brood care. The sides of the body, chest and lower gill cover are yellow to bluish, with the red morph sometimes also reddish and dark to blackish with aggressive or brood-caring specimens of all morphs. Young fish are brown up to a standard length of 12 to 15 cm and show two, more rarely also three, irregular longitudinal rows of points.
- Fin formula : dorsal XV – XVII / 8–10, anal III / 6–8.
Reproduction
The fish are monogamous and lay their spawn in caves. Both partners take care of eggs, larvae and fry, but the females take care of them more intensively. The larvae hatch three days after laying eggs and are brought to the floor of the cave by their parents. After eight to nine days they swim freely and are then looked after and protected by both parents for a period of five to six weeks. Both sexes show a more pronounced black longitudinal stripe during brood care.
Systematics
The species has been in the aquarium hobby for some time as "Green Kribensis ", Pelvicachromis pulcher "Nigeria Red", P. pulcher "Form B" or Pelvicachromis . sp. aff. pulcher , was first described in 1977 in a magazine of the German Cichlid Society and named after Walter Heiligenberg ( sacrimontis from Latin : "sacri" = holy and "montis" = mountain), a German biologist. Since there were doubts about the validity of the species, the Austrian ichthyologist Anton Lamboj and his colleague C. Pichler published another scientific description in the taxonomic journal Zootaxa in 2012 in which they confirmed the validity of the species.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f Anton Lamboj and C. Pichler, 2012. On the validity of Pelvicachromis sacrimontis Paulo, 1977 (Perciformes, Cichlidae), with designation of a neotype, and redescription of the species . Zootaxa 3436: 61-68. DOI: 10.11646 / zootaxa.3436.1.5
- ↑ a b Anton Lamboj : The cichlids of western Africa. Publisher: Natur und Tier, 2006, ISBN 386-659000-8 , page 184 u. 185
- ↑ Pelvicachromis sacrimontis on Fishbase.org (English)
- ↑ Paulo, J. (1977): Notes on the genus Pelvicachromis , especially on the justification of the taxon Pelvichromis kribensis (Boulenger, 1911). DCG Information V. 8 (No. 9): 161–168.