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Image Galleries

tjudy

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I have added a gallery for Hemichromis and for Steatocranus on tedsfishroom.com:

http://www.tedsfishroom.com/wp/image-galleries

There is a cool little Steatocranus that I hope is S. sp. Dwarf, but I am still waiting on confirmation of that. The male int eh gallery is just at 2 inches long adn absolutely brutal. The only Steatocranus I have kept that was meaner is S. irvinei.
 

westafrica

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Thanks for mentioning this add here Ted! Pics from Steatocranus sp. "squarehead" and sp. "dwarf" are really amazing (beautiful and helpful for identification). So are pics from Hemichromis sp. Moanda. Thank you! :)

BTW what makes you think that the fish identified as H. letourneauxi do actually belong to that species? Are you sure they come from North of Sahara? From what I read, according to both Loiselle and Lamboj, the species is to be restricted to populations from North of Sahara (if my memories are correct the type locality is in Egypt, or anyway in Northern Africa). The populations from South of Sahara formerly called H. letourneauxi could indeed be H. guttatus forms. Hopefully this will be made clearer by A. Lamboj's work on the genus!

Best regards,

Jérôme
 

Randall

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Hemichromis

BTW what makes you think that the fish identified as H. letourneauxi do actually belong to that species? Are you sure they come from North of Sahara? From what I read, according to both Loiselle and Lamboj, the species is to be restricted to populations from North of Sahara (if my memories are correct the type locality is in Egypt, or anyway in Northern Africa). The populations from South of Sahara formerly called H. letourneauxi could indeed be H. guttatus forms.

Hello Jerome,

What have either Lamboj or Loiselle published that suggests the above statement, please?

Thank you.

Randall Kohn
 

tjudy

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The designation of the fish as H. letourneauxi only happened after extensive comparison to what literature I have, images and personal communication with people who I think would know. Dr. Lamboj has seen the the images (and many others of the same fish) and agrees that they are most likely H. letourneauxi. He and I sat at my computer when we were at the OCA in November and went through my extensive files of Hemichromis images. What I thought were several different species ended up being different varieties of H. guttatus. My H. letoutneauxi are F1 from wild stock imported by Oliver Lucanus. Oliver is pretty good at ID. Now that you mention it, I will ask Oliver if he remembers the import and where they came from.

According to Dr. Lamboj one of the best ways to distinguish wild type H. letourneauxi from H. guttatus is to first compare head profile. H. letourneauxi will not have as convex a forehead as H. gutattus. That is true with my fish. Also, color pattern of darker dorsum to lighter ventral is present in my fish (though the images in the gallery do not show that distiction well). My H. letourneauxi are of a form that lacks irridiophores. Most H. gutattus also lose the lateral spot when breeding, but these H. letourneauxi do not.

The species is known to come from Saharan and subsaharan regions. Will this change? Time will tell. Am I 100% sure that the fish I have are H. letourneauxi? No, but I am 90%+ sure.... which is good enough for now. I can change it later if it proves wrong. One thing for sure, my fish are a lot closer to H. letourneauxi that what some people have been selling, so I decided to go with that ID so people comparing their fish to mine can at least be able to say that theirs are NOT H. letourneauxi.
 

westafrica

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Thanks a lot for that numerous precisions Ted! It's good news : this means that at least a strain of more than likely H. letourneauxi is present in the hobby!

I would not pretend that your fish aren't H. letourneauxi - I'm far from being qualified enough to do so! The main reason I was asking this is because for the last 10 years many fish have been sold as H. letourneauxi in Europe, and were actually more probably H. guttatus forms. The borders of H. guttatus itself are blur, so its not an easy challenge to tell! Furthermore many shops keep theconfusion alive : last week I saw Hemichromis sold as H. paynei in a shop (very expensive), and IMO they were very unlikely to belong to this species...

If you could get O. Lucanus's feedback on your Hemichromis it would be great!

Anyway, hopefully the revision of the genus will relieve us from many Hemichromis ID related headaches! :)

@Randall : I read it on a French forum, and heard it too in a conference by Michael Negrini, I will ask the precise references / source of these informations and get back to you.
 

tjudy

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Hi Steve,

Those are H. stellifer. Anton was very sure about them. The breeding H. stellifer in the gallery are the fish you gave me.

I do have some young H. letourneauxi. Plenty of them. Once it warms up I will send you some.

Ted
 

Randall

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Hemichromis

@Randall : I read it on a French forum, and heard it too in a conference by Michael Negrini, I will ask the precise references / source of these informations and get back to you.

Hello Jerome,

Thanks for offering, but there is no need to follow up. I know the source(s) of the information. However, at this time, this information is purely speculative and surely not published. Also, are you quite sure that Loiselle restricts Hemichromis letourneaxi to north of the Sahara? I'd be extremely surprised if such a statement was true; it runs contrary to every conversation I've had with him concerning the taxon.

Please say hello to Michael Negrini for me.

All the best,

Randall Kohn
 

freshwaterfishfan

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Kansas City, KS
Hemi confusion

Ted,

Don't you mean H. guttatus? The fish I gave you look exactly like the ones you listed under guttatus. I have stellifer, too, that look exactly like your stellifer. The ones I gave you have that bulky body type and that almost olive green/orange complexion. Couple of pictures of the fish (parents)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23681876@N06/2257039830/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23681876@N06/2256243065/

Also, is this fish H. cristatus?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23681876@N06/2257046780/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23681876@N06/2257046614/

Steve
 

Randall

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Hemichromis

Hey Steve,

The photos labeled Hemichromis stellifer in Ted's image gallery depict H. stellifer (Congo form), and the photos labeled H. cristatus in the links you furnished depict H. cristatus (Nigerian form).

Happy Hemis!

Randall Kohn
 

westafrica

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Paris, France
Hi Randall!

I'll transmit your greetings to Michael :) . BTW he is (as I am) very curious about what you wrote about H. sp. Moanda in the species profile : the fact that they do live sympatrically with H. stellifer in some locations, could you please tell me more about this?

Concerning the geographical restriction of H. letourneauxi by Dr. Loiselle, I didn't mention that it had been published, because I don't know, I was just quoting what Florent de Gasperis wrote on cichlidsforum.com on this point. Once again I can ask him to what source he was referring if you want.

My questions are essentially based on my curiosity, my aim is not to challenge the ID you make, just to know on what they are based, and improve my knowledge :) .

@Ted : hopefully some of your letourneauxi can cross the Atlantic ocean one day ;)
 

westafrica

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Paris, France
Hi Randall!

I discussed with both Florent and Michael yesterday in the evening, and I have to apologize because I had misunderstood Florent's message about Loiselle's position concerning H. letourneauxi. What Florent wrote is that Anton Lamboj first semt to follow Loiselle's position about H. letourneauxi, and then began to evoke the possibility that the species could be restricted to north saharan populations - which is quite different from what I wrote in my previous messages. M. Negrini tends to follow that idea as well, but of course remains careful about this until publication of the revision of the genus. Sorry for the time loss due to my misunderstanding.

Thanks for the link about H. sp. Moanda, it's where I had read the info about H. sp. Moanda and H. stellifer being sympatric in some locations. Do you remember where you picked up that specific information? Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

Jérôme
 

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