RE: Apistogramma trifasciata

["Maladorno, Dionigi" <DIONIGI.MALADORNO@roche.com>]

>Marco Lacerda wrote:
>
><<<Regarding the A. trifasciata-complex, presently there are three species 
>within the hobby.
>According to Kullander (pers. comm.), the species A. trifasciata is 
>restricted to the Paraguayan (I mean from Rio Paraguay and its 
>tributaries) form, that have spotted caudal fin as main diagnostic 
>character.  (At Rio Mamore-Guapore region in Brazil, we've two additional
>forms of 
>this complex: 
>a) one is found from tributaries of lower Rio Mamore, and has been 
>identified by Kullander as Apistogramma maciliense, which was first 
>described by Haseman as a subspecies of A. trifasciata a long time ago.
>It is very similar to A. trifasciata, but lack the spots on caudal fin, 
>and sometimes (but not in all specimens!) the 'third stripe' (ventral 
>one).
>b) second is found at tributaries of upper Rio Mamore, and is known in 
>the hobby as Apistogramma sp. 'Rio Mamore' (see DATZ - a German magazine 
>- 9/96, pages 548-549) for its introduction in the hobby ("Staeck, 1996. 
>Neu Importiert: Apistogramma aus dem Mamore"). 
>(...)
>There are two color varieties of the A. sp. Mamore, the red and blue. I 
>consider the red one a SPLENDID fish, to be compared to the prettiest 
>species of Apistogramma (its caudal fin is deep red, even in wild 
>fish!).
>(...)
>I suggest you ask the owner of the petshop the origin of the fishes he 
>sold you. This might help on the identification.>>>>>>>

Listen, thanks really very much for the detailed and competent
explanation!

>From what you say, it seems that my pair is A. maciliense, since it has
the general A. trifasciata characteristics, with no dots on the caudal
fin and no ventral stripe.  I know nothing about taxonomy issues, but
from what I read I would not be surprised if one day or another
Kullander will further split A. maciliense in two species, with or
without ventral stripe!

I spoke directly with the distributor (the aquarium store just had the
list of the available fishes, and I picked them up still in their bags
after they arrived to the store), and he stated they are tank-raised
juveniles from somewhere in Florida. Since they appear to be juveniles
with no signs of recent long-distance shipping (broken fins, other signs
of stress), I think this is likely to be true.

Now, Marco's message made  me wonder about also the second pair of
Apisto that I got. In fact, in addition to the alleged (and not true) A.
breitbinden, what I ordered was a pair named A. Rio Mamore.
This second pair turned out to be of quite small juveniles with a
slender body and caudal fins with vertical rows of dots. The caudal fins
were rounded two weeks ago, but are just now beginning to show some
furcate shape. There is a lateral band ending (if I remember well) just
on the caudal peduncle, and a relatively short and even dorsal fin, with
no sign of long rays. No signs of color other than shades of gray and
maybe a little blue in the dots on the tail.  I have not yet observed
them very carefully (also because they hide a lot), but my preliminary
impression was that they do not belong to a high dorsal fin group.  The
body shape is also changing, and they now appear less slender that what
I thought at first. I am going to wait a little longer before  I start
trying more seriously to identify the species.

So, I wonder what the distributor called breitbinden and what they
called mamore: probably neither of them is what they thought, which is
not surprising.

Dionigi Maladorno




>
>
>
>
>