Schwetzochromis neodon
| Schwetzochromis neodon | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Schwetzochromis | ||||||||||||
| Poll , 1948 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Schwetzochromis neodon | ||||||||||||
| Poll, 1948 |
Schwetzochromis neodon ( Syn. : Haplochromis rheophilus Poll , 1948) is an African cichlid the endemic in Fwa River , a tributary of the Lubu, in the basin of the Sankuru the east (province of Kasai-Oriental ) of the Democratic Republic of Congo appears.
features
Schwetzochromis neodon grows to a length of 12 to 14 centimeters and has a slim, elongated body that is adapted to life in regions of water with high currents. The head is rounded, the body mainly covered with round scales. The fish are medium brown in color, the scales have a light center. This creates a vertical stripe pattern on the flanks. The underside of the fish is light. The gill cover and parts of the head sides are green to turquoise blue, the dorsal and caudal fin are patterned with dots. This is more pronounced in the males than in the females. They also reach a greater length, have a black border on their dorsal fin, show eggspots on their anal fin and the soft rays in their dorsal and anal fin and in the pelvic fins are longer.
Way of life
Schwetzochromis neodon is a lively, swimming and strongly territorial fish with great aggressiveness towards conspecifics and alien fish. As a herbivore, it feeds on algae and diatoms as well as on higher plants, e.g. B. from Vallisnerien . Like other haplochromine cichlids , Schwetzochromis neodon is an ovophilic mouthbrooder . To spawn, the male digs a small, shallow pit with a diameter of about 10 to 15 cm in the bottom of the water. The female then carries the eggs around in her mouth for about 21 days until the young hatch. The maximum number of yellow eggs is 30. They are about 3 mm in diameter. After the first free swimming, the young fish rarely or not at all come back into the mother's mouth.
literature
- Anton Lamboj: The cichlids of western Africa. Publisher: Natur und Tier, 2006, ISBN 386-659000-8
Web links
- Schwetzochromis neodon on Fishbase.org (English)
- photos