Aqualog Extra - The latest Apistogramma

[Olga]

Just got one, beautiful pictures! In this book on page 20 I finally found a picture of the fish very similar to that was discussed in here http://forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=2820 . It's called there A. sp. "Nanay", synonym A. sp. "Baby face yellow tail". And there are more fish pictures with mixed names IMHO. Does anybody have a correction to that book like there is for South American Cichlids II Aqualog from 1996? All these new names are so confusing...

 

[Mike Wise]

I haven't gotten this book yet. Since it is an Aqualog book, I imagine that the fish listed as "A. sp. Nanay" is A. sp. Parrot/Papagei. It is Römer's name for this fish. Uwe & I have had several private communications & a published debate about this name.

The problem all started in late 1998 when Julio Melgar sent Uwe some new species that he collected in Peru. One was from the Rio Nanay and belongs to the cruzi-complex. The other was from the Rio Ampiyacu & related to A. sp. Pebas (Pebas-complex). When he showed me the Nanay fish, I told him that it was either A. sp. Orange-stripes/Orangestreifen, or something close to it. I asked Ingo Koslowski his opinion. He agreed with me, but since only one specimen of A. sp. Orangestreifen had ever been recognized he suggested we give Melgar's Nanay fish a different name. We suggested to Melgar that he call it A. sp. Nanay. He started selling it under this name in late 1998. Meanwhile, Römer published an article in 1999 on the Ampiyacu fish & named it "A. sp. Rio Nanay". He seems to have mis-read Melgars collecting localities & believed that it came from the Rio Nanay. When Koslowski realized Römer's error, he reported it in a January 2000 issue of DATZ & introduced the cruzi-complex fish from the Rio Nanay as "A. sp. Nanay" - the name under which Melgar had been selling the fish for over a year. I hoped that this would settle the issue for hobbyists in Germany. The Nanay fish was already being discussed as "A. sp. Nanay" on English speaking dwarf cichlid web sites. I didn't expect us to have the same problems with the names that was occurring in Germany.

Then Uwe published an article in the ACA's Buntbarsche Bulletin. This was too much for me. I immediately reported on the confused names on some English language dwarf cichlid sites in order to avoid the confusion that these 2 fish had caused in Germany. The editors of the BB asked me to write an article that expanded what I had written on the web sites. I did this with the aid of Ingo Koslowski & Julio Melgar. I described the two species, the differences between them, their distribution in the wild, the history of their introduction, & why the Amapiyacu fish should not be labeled 'A. sp. Rio Nanay' (a name used previously on sales list for the Nanay species & that the name erroneously indicates that the Ampiyacu fish comes from the Rio Nanay). This article was immediately sent to Uwe for a rebuttal of my claims. His reply was that, yes I was correct. The fish he calls A. sp. Nanay does not come from the Rio Nanay, but from the Ampiyacu. He explained, however, that since he was the first to publish an introduction of the Ampiyacu fish, that his name takes priority, whether or not it accurately describes (confuses?) the fish. This might be true, under rules of the ICZN, for scientifically described species but it has no bearing on informal common names. Additionally, it appears species lists like Melgar's sales lists, which appeared long before Uwe's article don't count. I don't understand his stubbornness regarding this name, but from what I understand very few people use the "Nanay" name for the Ampiyacu species anymore - other than Römer & his publishers. Almost everyone else uses "A. sp. Papagei/Parrot" for this fish & "A. sp. Nanay" for the Nanay fish (see: Koslowski (2002) & Staeck (2003)).

Still, I expect Römer, in volume 2 of his atlas, will use "A. sp. Rio Nanay" for the fish we all know as A. sp. Papagei/Parrot. The less common species from the Rio Nanay that Koslowski, Melgar, Staeck, & myself call "A. sp. Nanay" will probably be labeled "A. sp. Melgar". If this is true, I highly recommend that anyone who owns the book should change the names.

I really wish this name confusion would go away.

 

[Olga]

Thank you, Mike, for this detailed explanation. I have read those articles in BB, that's a big confusion with names. The interesting thing is that in this book they have different pictures for A. sp. "Nanay", A. sp. "Rio Nanay" and A. sp. "Papagei". The last goes as synonym to A. sp. "Algodon I". I'm looking forward for your corrections to this book

 

[Rolo]

Still, I expect Römer, in volume 2 of his atlas, will use "A. sp. Rio Nanay" for the fish we all know as A. sp. Papagei/Parrot.

Hi Mike, great explanation, thanks.

I'll expect that too... in Mergus Aquarienatlas 6 (2002), Römer describes this fish as A. sp. Nanay... and the name-problem were already known at this time.
And that's not the only fish in this book, where are different opinions about naming species especially to Kosklowski... there are also Algodon II (=Putumayo), Brustband (=Maulbrüter), Juruá (=Cruzeiro), Kupferrücken and Minima (both seems to be A. sp. Weissaum), Mortenthaler (=Leierschwanz/Lyratail at this time... but now described as A. martini), Rio Preto (don't, know what it is, but it's not the fish, Koslowski use this name for), Wilhelmi (=Abacaxis), Nana (no idea what it is, something prety near to A. macmasteri), Xingu I+II (the same?)
That's 11 out of 21 species in that book. Obviously he put all species into that book, where he has a different opinion to Ingo ,-)

But ..how interesting... he also describes A. pulchra there... and there it is NOT the A. sp. Erdfresser pictured and described ;-)

greetings,
Rolo