New Nanochromis species

[Randall]

Hello Friends,

Following on the heels of newly described Nanochromis sabinae Lamboj 2005, Dr.'s Ulrich Schliewen & Melanie Stiassny have just co-authored a paper describing Nanochromis wickleri from Lake Mai Ndombe in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

N. wicklerii is a larger (ca. <9 cm/3.5"), more deep-bodied Nanochromis species that differs from congeners by possessing a higher dorsal fin ray count and highly pronounced dorsal fin lappets on the second and third spines. The life coloration of N. wickerli is essentially bluish-gray, and from the photos I've seen, it possesses a large mouth.

Following the two species-groups proposed by Greenwood (1987), the authors note that N. wickleri shares several characters with the species of the so-called nudiceps group, along with N. nudiceps, N. consortus, N. minor, N. parilus, N. splendens, and N. transvestitus, bringing the total number of described Nanochromis species to ten.

N. wickleri is found sympatrically with N. transvestitus in Lake Mai Ndombe, DR Congo, and is named after Wolfgang Wickler, a collegue of Dr. Schliewen.

Thank you.

Randall Kohn

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Randall, do you have the full reference for the paper by Schliewen and Stiassny (journal name, volume, page numbers, and year)? I'd like to take a look at it. Thanks.

 

[Randall]

Nanochromis wickleri

Hello Nebraska,

Well, yeah, of course I do! But give a guy a chance to put up a species profile, please.

I do the best I can. You think it's easy keeping on top of all this stuff...lol?

Happy fishing,

Randall Kohn