Tilapia sp. Jewel = T. deckerti?

[Mike Wise]

This is out of my realm of expertise, but I though the Westie people might be interested in the following paper:

Description of a Tilapia (Coptodon) species flock of Lake Ejagham (Cameroon), including a redescription of Tilapia deckerti Thys van den Audenaerde, 1967 (Perciformes, Cichlidae)

See: http://www.pfeil-verlag.de/04biol/pdf/spix33_2_05.pdf

I think (after a quick read) that it states that Tilapia sp. Jewel is the same as T. deckerti.

 

[tjudy]

Thanks for this link.

The paper takes the subgenus Coptodon species flock in Ejagham that was a hash of undescribed species and describes them. We have been called the 'large black' and 'little black' cf. deckerti for a while, but those are now fusiforme. The sp. jewel is the real deckerti according to this paper. I need to read through it more carefully, but that must mean that the original description of T. deckerti must have been of the fish later called 'jewel'.

All these fish are so similar that it has to be nearly impossible to tell what is what in the field.

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Mike, you are right on. The T. sp. Jewel that I was referring to in the other thread (http://www.forum.apistogramma.com/showthread.php?t=10761) is now T. cf. deckerti, according to Anton. I was planning on updating the thread once the fish made it into the U.S. -- hopefully this week.