Venezuela fish

[ttwilki@ibm.net]

The fish we recently collected in Venezuela have settled down and some
observations have been made. 
We collected what we have thought were A. hoignei from four different
sites.  Three from the south of the Orinoco River and one site north of
the Orinoco.  The males look similar to each other except some sites had
fish more colorful than other sites. And as is common in this species
some caudal fins are more red and others more blue.  Some have red
edging on the caudal and others edged with black.  The females are
different.  The fish collected on the north of the Orinoco have in their
breeding colors the black chin and throat as seen in Linke and Staeck's
book in their discription and picture of the female A. viejita form
III.  The females from south of the Orinoco lack this marking.

The elongate fish we found near Piacoa looks in general like A.
meinkeni.  In details it is different.  This new fish occasionally shows
vestiges of transverse bars.  It also has dark pigmentation on the first
few anterior spines of the dorsal fin.  It will often show 2 faint
abdominal stripes.  The caudal spot is not a blotch as seen in A.
meinkeni but rather is a well defined rectangle.  The sexes are very
difficult to differentiate.  The brooding color of the female is the
usual bright yellow with a small central spot.  The ventrals are black
as in other apistos but not as prominent.  This is to point out the
differences between the description of A. meinkeni in Linke and Staeck
and the fish we found.  Any help in identification would be appreciated.
Tom



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