Re: R: nijsseni aggro and spawning

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

> Simone wrote:

> Ken answered me for the female, but I was talking about the male so I
> repost all the description with all the details.

> Ken Laidlaw wrote:

> If it has a black spot on the caudal peduncle then it is a
> nijsseni female.

> Simone wrote:

> It seems to me that nijsseni and panduro are almost the same fish, by the
> Erik's photos I can see the differences but it seems just a difference in
> the colours as a different colour morph, and this is not enough to tell
> that they are two different species, there are a lot of apistos considered
> the same species but they differ a lot for the colours, for example let me
> take the Linke & Staek book, take Cacatuoides, well there are different
> colour morphs but they are the same species even if they look very
> different more different then nijsseni and panduro look.
>
> This is of course my opinion, and this is only based on the great photos
> Erik took of the panduro and nijsseni, but wich is the main different, wich
> is the thing that makes panduro and nijsseni two different species?????
>
> Till today I was sure to have nijsseni, now it seems that I have panduro
> and nijsseni, tomorrow who knows.....????
>
> My female, while alone without the male, had the spot on the body, was
> yellow but didn't have the big patch on the gills and on the caudal fin, so
> it seems preatty like panduro, but now it has the colour patch on the
> caudal fin but still doesn't have the patch on the gill so wich species do
> I have??
>
> The male is almost unidentifyied, he's still recovering from the good
> treatment he got from the importer :-(((
> But I'm almost sure it's a nijsseni.
>
> What to do?????
>
>
> Thanks a lot
> Simone Vicini (svicini@lcnet.it)

Simone,

What Ken reports is true 90% of the time, but some mature females will display a
caudal patch similar to the male's when aggressively defending a territory.

Here we go again. COLOR PATTERNS ARE USEFUL BUT NOT NECESSARILY DIAGNOSTIC. As I
mentioned a couple of months ago, the color pattern in these two closely related
species isn't as important as physical features. A. panduro males have a low, but
obviously serrated dorsal fin. Male A. nijsseni's dorsal fin is unserrated, more
like that of A. agassizii. A. panduro also has a shorter lower jaw than A.
nijsseni. If you look carefully at photos of the two species you will see that the
lower lip of A. nijsseni extends slightly beyond the upper lip (an under bite).
Compare it with A. panduro whose upper and lower lips extend outward the same
length.

All of this was explained in Römer's manuscript that he submitted for publication.
It even included statistical graphing that compares jaw lengths between these two
species plus A. norberti & A. payaminonis. It also describes crossbreeding behavior
and results. Most of this was edited out of the published version of the original
description. I don't blame Uwe for being upset with the publishers and for the
panning of his description by some other ichthyologists. Hardly any of it can be
blamed on him, if any!

Mike Wise

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