Pelvicachromis taeniatus Assistance Request

[R3K1@aol.com]

Dear fellow cichlid enthusiasts,

It has been nearly 23 years since Loiselle & Castro published their paper, 
"The Status of Pelvicachromis kribensis (Boulenger 1911), in the "Buntbarsche 
Bulletin" (BB#81, Dec. 1980).  In their paper, Loiselle and Castro suggest 
that Pelvicachromis taeniatus is a species complex consisting of three 
distinct species.  Since 1980, many more P. taeniatus color morphs have been 
collected and embraced by hobbyists both in Europe and the US, i.e., Wouri, 
Ndonga, Bandewouri, Bipindi, Nyete, etc.  These new discoveries, in my 
opinion, seem to support Loiselle and Castro's earlier purported (proposed) 
assertion.

Ted Judy, a biology teacher and hobbyist friend, and I are in the process of 
accumulating data concerning Pelvicachromis taeniatus and ask you for your 
kind assistance, please.

Our interest concerns an evolutionary biology question. We are attempting to 
determine if the Pelvicachromis taeniatus color morphs constitute a clinal 
relationship.  According to Ted, "a 'cline' is a sequence of variations that 
appear in different geographic forms over a long distance. Two forms that are 
in adjacent areas, and thus might have some occasional genetic drift between 
them, will have features that share a lot in common.  The farther apart two 
forms are, the less likely it is that their gene pools will overlap, so there 
are fewer features that they share." 

Ted further explains that we are "collecting data to see if a cline can be 
seen in the number of caudal and dorsal ocelli this species has. The Nigerian 
forms are very spotted, while many of the southern Camaroonian forms are not 
heavily spotted at all." 

To this end, we ask you for some information about your fish. If you have any 
of the Pelvicachromis taeniatus forms, please furnish as much of the 
following information as possible. Please limit your data to fish that are 
mature and of a reproductive age. It would not be beneficial to provide data 
for a bunch of fry or sub adults. If you do not own the fish, but have 
permission from the person who does to give us the requested data, please 
include the name of the person so that we can avoid double counting fish. 

Kindly furnish the following.  We are including examples of responses for 
clarity: 

Type: Pel. taen. 'lobe' 
Generation: wild, F1, F2, etc. 
Origin: Self collected, importer/distributor, retailer, hobbyist, club 
trade/auction 
Sex: male or female 
Dorsal ocelli: the number of spots in the soft dorsal fin rays* 
Caudal ocelli: the number of spots in the caudal fin*

*A partial spot, as on the edge of the dorsal or caudal fin, counts as one 
(1). 

Ted explains that is our "goal is to create a map of the geographic range of 
the P. taeniatus types and see if there is a clinal pattern between the 
northern Nigerian populations and the southern Camaroonian populations."

Thank you all very much for your valued assistance in this well intentioned 
project.

All the best,

Randall Kohn and Ted Judy

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