Polyspotted mouthbrooders
| Polyspotted mouthbrooders | ||||||||||||
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A not yet fully grown specimen, photographed in a photo cuvette immediately after the catch |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nimbochromis polystigma | ||||||||||||
| ( Regan , 1922) |
The polyspotted mouthbrooder ( Nimbochromis polystigma , syn .: Haplochromis polystigma ) is an endemic and widespread cichlid living in Lake Malawi . The specific epithet "polystigma" is made up of "poly", Greek for many and "stigma", Greek for point, spot.
features
Nimbochromis polystigma reaches a maximum length of 23 cm (females stay smaller) and is one of the larger representatives of its genus. Females and juveniles up to a length of 12 cm are brown-yellow to light brown and have brown irregular spots on the sides of the body and dark brown spots in between. The fins also show a dot pattern. The stain markings can completely disappear due to environmental factors. The sides of the body then have a mesh pattern. In sexually mature, courtship males, the lower head area is yellow to copper-red, the front body is about to the middle of the dorsal fin and the upper half of the body is shiny bluish, the rest of the body is olive green with a bluish tinge. The mouth is terminal and inclined. The lower jaw protrudes.
- Fin formula : dorsal XV – XVII / 9–12, anals III – IV / 9–11.
- Scale formula : mLR 32–34.
Way of life
The polyspotted mouthbrooder occurs mainly in areas with alternating sandy soils, rocky habitats and in vegetation overgrown with Vallisneria and Potamogeton . It feeds mainly on fish and hunts in pairs or in groups of 20 to 50 animals. Specimens hunting individually lie motionless on the ground and use their camouflage color. Like almost all Malawi cichlids, the polyspotted mouthbrooder is a mouthbrooder . The females take the eggs and up to 100 young fish in their mouths. The males are polygamous .
literature
- Horst Linke, Wolfgang Staeck: African cichlids, cichlids from East Africa. P. 54, Tetra Verlag, 1981, ISBN 3-8974-5103-4 .
- Erwin Schraml: Nimbochromis polystigma. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 706 f.
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .
Web links
- Nimbochromis polystigma on Fishbase.org (English)
- Nimbochromis polystigma inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013.1. Posted by: Kazembe, J., Makocho, P. & Mailosi, A., 2006. Retrieved September 14, 2013.