- Messages
- 1,164
- Location
- New Jersey, USA
To all the Jewel Fish enthusiasts:
Historically, Hemichromis cerasogaster has always been somewhat of a controversial little fish. Originally described as Paratilapia cerasogaster by Boulenger (1899), it was not until Loiselle redescribed this fish and generically referred it to Hemichromis in 1979 that cerasogaster took its current position as a member of the guttatus, stellifer, cerasogaster species group.
Every photo I have ever seen of H. cerasogaster has not been cerasogaster at all but, rather, the Congo form of H. stellifer. So what does cerasogaster look like?
Very recently, a fish imported from DR Congo and sold as H. sp. "Inongo" has reached the US market in very small quantities. Inongo is located on the east shore of Lac Mai-Ndombe, the holotype locality of H. cerasogaster, and the fish is allegedly collected in the streams in or around that location.
Although it is not etched in stone, yet, Dr. Anton Lamboj has compared the Inongo fish to a type specimen of cerasogaster and believes that they are the same species. So, perhaps for the very first time in the US, Hemichromis cerasogaster has arrived.
Thanks all for reading.
Randall Kohn
Historically, Hemichromis cerasogaster has always been somewhat of a controversial little fish. Originally described as Paratilapia cerasogaster by Boulenger (1899), it was not until Loiselle redescribed this fish and generically referred it to Hemichromis in 1979 that cerasogaster took its current position as a member of the guttatus, stellifer, cerasogaster species group.
Every photo I have ever seen of H. cerasogaster has not been cerasogaster at all but, rather, the Congo form of H. stellifer. So what does cerasogaster look like?
Very recently, a fish imported from DR Congo and sold as H. sp. "Inongo" has reached the US market in very small quantities. Inongo is located on the east shore of Lac Mai-Ndombe, the holotype locality of H. cerasogaster, and the fish is allegedly collected in the streams in or around that location.
Although it is not etched in stone, yet, Dr. Anton Lamboj has compared the Inongo fish to a type specimen of cerasogaster and believes that they are the same species. So, perhaps for the very first time in the US, Hemichromis cerasogaster has arrived.
Thanks all for reading.
Randall Kohn
