Xenotilapia melanogenys

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Xenotilapia melanogenys
Drawing from the first description

Drawing from the first description

Systematics
Order : Cichliformes
Family : Cichlids (Cichlidae)
Subfamily : Pseudocrenilabrinae
Tribe : Ectodini
Genre : Xenotilapia
Type : Xenotilapia melanogenys
Scientific name
Xenotilapia melanogenys
( Boulenger , 1898)

Xenotilapia melanogenys ( Syn . : Enantiopus melanogenys ) is an African cichlid species that is endemic to the East African Lake Tanganyika .

features

Xenotilapia melanogenys is elongated, laterally flattened and can reach a maximum length of 15 cm. The standard length of the fish is 5 to 5.9 times the maximum body height. The relatively large head is pointed with a straight or slightly convex head profile. The mouth is terminal and can be pushed forward far. The fish are colored silvery gray. Depending on your mood, nine to ten dark spots can appear on the upper half of the body. The dorsal fin is yellowish with oblique, light blue stripes. The anal fin and the pelvic fins are also marked yellow-blue. The pelvic fins are short at the front and long at the back. They are used to support it on the ground. The caudal fin is forked. During the breeding season, the whitish or yellow underside of the head of the male turns black ( melanogenys = Greek : “melas” = black + “genys” = lower jaw).

Way of life

Xenotilapia melanogenys lives in large swarms over sandy soils down to depths of 40 meters and feeds mainly on copepods , mussels and shrimp larvae. The fish are mouthbrooders that spawn together in a school. To do this, the fish migrate to flatter regions, the males build spawning pits close together with a diameter of 20 to 40 cm. The mating season of a swarm takes several days. Mouthbrood care is solely a matter for the females.

Systematics

The cichlid species was first described in 1898 by the Belgian-British ichthyologist George Albert Boulenger under the scientific name Enantiopus melanogenys and remained the only species in the genus. Two studies on the internal systematics of the genus Xenotilapia showed that this is paraphyletic if Enantiopus is not synonymous with Xenotilapia . The species is therefore mostly listed as Xenotilapia melanogenys today . Common feature of the extended genus Xenotilapia are four dark ring bones (infraorbitalia) of which the foremost does not overlap the elongated second eye ring bones and has four or five sensory pores .

source

  • Pierre Brichard: The Big Book of Tanganyika Cichlids. With all the other fish on Lake Tanganyika. Bede Verlag GmbH. 1995, ISBN 978-3927997943 , pages 431-435.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Enantiopus melanogenys in the Catalog of Fishes (English)
  2. ↑ Tetsumi Takahashi (2003): Systematics of Xenotilapia Boulenger, 1899 (Perciformes: Cichlidae) from Lake Tanganyika, Africa. Ichthyological Research, February 2003, Volume 50, Issue 1, 36-47.
  3. ↑ S. Koblmüller, W. Salzburg, C. Sturmbauer: Evolutionary Relationships in the Sand-Dwelling Cichlid Lineage of Lake Tanganyika Suggest Multiple Colonization of Rocky Habitats and Convergent Origin of Biparental Mouthbrooding PDF (556 KB) J Mol Evol (2004) 58: 79-96 DOI: 10.1007 / s00239-003-2527-1

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