Trematocranus
| Trematocranus | ||||||||||||
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Trematocranus placodon , drawing from the first description of the species as Haplochromis placodon by Charles Tate Regan |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Trematocranus | ||||||||||||
| Trewavas , 1935 |
Trematocranus ( Gr .: "Trema" = hole + kranos = skull) is a genus from the family of cichlids (Cichlidae), which occurs in eastern Africa in Lake Malawi .
features
Trematocranus species reach lengths of 22 to 25 cm and are silvery to bluish in color. They are high-backed, laterally strongly flattened fish with a short head and a terminal mouth. Dark spots on the upper half of the body are typical of the species. The first lies directly in front of the dorsal fin, the second extends below the upper lateral line below the eighth to twelfth hard ray of the dorsal fin and the last lies below the soft rayed section of the dorsal fin at the end of the upper lateral line. There are two to four rows of scales on the "cheeks".
Way of life
Trematocranus species live in shallow water on sandy banks and between Vallisneria populations and feed on crustaceans, insect larvae and snails. Like almost all cichlids in Lake Malawi, the Trematocranus species are mouthbrooders .
species
Four species are assigned to the genus Trematocranus .
- Trematocranus labifer (Trewavas, 1935)
- Trematocranus microstoma Trewavas, 1935 ( type species )
- Trematocranus pachychilus Dierickx et al., 2018
- Trematocranus placodon (Regan, 1922)
literature
- Ethelwynn Trewavas: A Synopsis of the Cichlid Fishes of Lake Nyasa . From the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Ser. 10, vol. xvi. p. 65, July 1935.
- Erwin Schraml: Trematocranus. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. 2 volumes. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 946.
Web links
- Trematocranus on Fishbase.org (English)