hemichromis lifalili

[Chugger]

ok here is a question from, me i know that we aren't sure what the lifalili looks like or if it's even ever been imported, but here's my imput on it, i have 3 x in my life gotten hemichromis lifalili WC from suppliers who i trust and r well known in the field, my description of the fish is as follows, the males of the two gets larger and more robust, with a blueish tint and darker red color, while the females are smaller and are strawberry in colored, and in my experince the female gets her color 1st and keeps more of it even when not in breeding mode, now does anyone agree with me on this description.

 

[aquaticclarity]

That describes almost 1/2 the red jewel cichlids out there.

Jeff

 

[Chugger]

well your right on that even my munada have the male with a darker color pattern, but with the lifalili i guess you would have too also go with shape, there compacted and round, as compared to the longer types of hemichromis, and more thicker fish in the body then the cristatus,or munada, atlest thats how i see it in my head

 

[tjudy]

I would have to disagree that we do not know what lifalili looks like. Granted, for a long time the documented H. lilfalili were probably all going to Europe, but their photographers are as good as ours (or better). I think that H lifilili is one of the easier jewels to identify, primarily by the relatively large and very round lateral spot combined with a lot of irridescent spots. The closest two species to H. lifilili are H letourneuxi and H. paynei, but both have more ovoid lateral spots and less irridescne spotting.

 

[Chugger]

so, those pics in the books, those r the real lifalili's, also i knew a guy who went by fishaddict on aquabid, i wish i could get ahold of him again cause he had the nicest strain of hemichromis paynei i have every seen, he sold them as lifalili, but im sure they were paynei, and these guys got so so red.

 

[Randall]

Hemichromis lifalili & H. paynei

Hello guys,

Am I the only one who finds this thread confusing?

Tom, Ted is quite right in that we absolutely know what Hemichromis lifalili looks like. The species is distinguished, in part, by its rounded cranial profile, ocellated dark midlateral blotch that is situated completely above the midlateral line, and extreme number of iridiophores on the body and fins. I've seen wild H. lifalili in recent years that were imported from the DR Congo, so they do arrive stateside from time to time. In the hobby, H. lifalili is sometimes confused with a heavily-spangled tank-raised H. guttatus that was originally bred in Germany.

Midlateral blotches vary in size, shape, and visability (they are mood-dependent). Sometimes the difference between round and ovoid is so slight that using this single character to identify a jewelfish may not be a good idea. Rather, it might be better to look at the midlateral blotch in combination with other characters. The exception to this suggestion is H. guttatus. H. guttatus is the only Hemichromis species that exhibits a midlateral blotch the bottom of which is transversed by the midlateral line.

As far as relationships between the species are concerned, Loiselle proposed Hemichromis species-groups in 1979 based on common shared characters. He grouped H. lifalili with H. letourneauxi and H. paynei with H. cristatus and H. bimaculatus (he called the former two species "the Hemichromis letourneauxi species group" and the later three species "the Hemichromis bimaculatus species group"). Based on their pharyngeal dentition, cranial osteology, deep caudal peduncles and color pattern, Loiselle suggested a closer relationship between H. paynei and H. cristatus to each other than to H. bimaculatus, calling them a "species-pair."

When he described H. paynei from costal basins in southern Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 1979, Loiselle did so from preserved specimens. Information on life coloration was lacking. Consequently, no description of life coloration is sited in his paper. The midlateral blotch exhibited by this species, however, is positioned closer to the dorsum than to the midlateral line, making it appear very high on the body. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone can say with certainty exactly what H. paynei looks like. I find the number misidentifications in the aquarium literature amazing! Using Loiselle's original description and his annotated key, however, I believe that just about every published photo of H. paynei does not depict H. paynei at all.

All the best,

Randall Kohn