quick ? about the book by lomboj.........

[declivis]

can anyone tell me if it includes all the locality varients of the genus Pelvicachromis? for example Pel. taeniatus "wouri", "kienke", "bandevouri". i'd love a copy but i want to see if the locality varients are there as well. thanks..........

 

[Xanathos]

Yes, it does..

Great book, really

Phil

 

[tjudy]

It has a lot of them, but not all. Still a great book. Part of the problem is that new localities are arriving all the time. In a personal conversation with Anton Lamboj, Neil and I discussed the issue of type localities. Lamboj thinks that a lot of the type localities come form places that are not geographically isolated from each other, and that many of the localities have a type that is highly variable. What he included in his book, are the type localities that he could justifiably confirm. He also states that many of the 'forms' are likely the same fish 'discovered' on more than one occasion.

He points out this example in his book:

In 1993, for example, I collected P. taeniatus from a tributary of the Kienke River. I thought that this creek had previously gone unsampled. Later on, follwoing some discussions and information exchanges, it became apparent that I had definitely collected at the same locality as Seehausen (1989), from where he collected specimens that he named P. taeniatus 'Nange'. Several months later, after a discussion with Otto Gartner, an aquaristic pioneer and one of the first to collect in Camaroon, it became apparent that this creek was exactly the same as the one in which he collected P. taeniatus during the 1970's and originally introduced to the hobby as P. taeniatus 'kienke'.

The point... the P. taeniatus locality names are not dependable in all cases.

The locality types Lamboj pictures in his book are:

Nigerian: Isokpo, Lagos, Warri
Camaroonian: Bipindi, Muyuka, Wouri, Lokoundje, Moliwe, Dja, Dehane, Kienke, Ndonga, Lobe, Lobe: Grand Batanga

Notable types that are not included: makoure, nange, nyete, bandewouri and problably others I cannot think of at the moment.

 

[LyreTail]

Furthermore Lamboj states that none of these fish were found in brackish water yet if you look up on fishbase, several times these fish were found in such localities ( such as lower Niger delta) especially in the early 1900's. I think there is a lot of bad information out there and Anton Lamboj's book seems to be more inline with how these fish in this genus seem to breed and live

Just my opinion - very good book and well worth owning

 

[Randall]

Pelvicachromis taeniatus

Hello all,

Yes, methinks Ted is right on the money. Seemingly several different names have been applied to Cameroonian Pelvicachromis taeniatus to represent color forms of the same fish. As Ted illustrates, P. taeniatus "Kienke" and P. taeniatus "Nange" were collected in the same creek at different times, so the informal designations "Kienke" and "Nange" do not necessarily correspond to place names.

Ironically, P. taeniatus "Kienke" is thought to be the fish that Boulenger described as Pelmatochromis kribensis in 1911. However, through Anton Lamboj, we now know that P. taeniatus "Nange" has been collected in the same creek as P. taeniatus "Kienke," so the "Kienke" fish may not be Boulenger's Pelmatochromis kribensis afterall.

Pelvicachromis taeniatus (Boulenger, 1901) from Nigeria is a whole other fish...literally. Over the years, the aquariuim literature places this fish--along with P. pulcher--in brackish water because, I expect, Boulenger cited it's type locality as "in the Niger delta." Well, the Niger delta is huge and is loaded with fresh water. All reports from the field say that this species is found exclusivly in fresh water.

What's ultimately significant here is that in 1968, Thys van den Audenaerde synonymized Pelmatochromis kribensis Boulenger 1911 and P. kribensis var. calliptera Pellegrin 1929 (both from Cameroon) with P. taeniatus Boulenger 1901 (from Nigeria) without explanation. In 1977, Paulo contested this synonymization; and in 1980, Loiselle and Castro contested it further. At the very least, Pelvicachromis taeniatus is a species complex of at least three different species, and it appears that both synonymized taxa will be reinstated.

Whew!

Randall Kohn

 

[Fisherking]

Hi, where can I get this book in English??

 

[tjudy]

The only place i know of right now is www.tonyorso.com. I think that Neil (this site) is out of stock on them. You might also look on AquaBid... LisasLair maight have them.

 

[LyreTail]

I got my copy from www.fishbookstore.com

http://www.fishbookstore.com/phpcatalog/?function=detail&id=283

 

[Randall]

"The Cichlid Fishes of Western Africa"

Hello all,

Yes, unfortunately, apistogramma.com is all out of Dr. Lamboj's new book. Last I heard Lisaslair.com is out as well.

Copies may be obtained from

http://tonyorsousa.com and http://fishbookstore.com.

Get 'em while you can!

Happy reading!

All the best,

Randall Kohn

 

[tjudy]

Randall stated: "At the very least, Pelvicachromis taeniatus is a species complex of at least three different species, and it appears that both synonymized taxa will be reinstated."

Another possibility is that many of the P. taeniatus 'races' represent 'species flocks'. A species flock is a group of very closely related species that are not quite geographically or reproductively isolated from each other. The 'kienke' vs. 'nange' debate provides some support for this. There are likely many other localities where the genes of one 'race' can flow to another and create genetic variability within the group.