NEWS103
3
Portrait of a typical
Eretmodus cyanostictus
fromKavala.Note the spatulate red teeth.
Thispair of
Eretmodus
fromMakombe (Burundi) in thenorthof the lakebelong to the species that KONINGS (1999) terms“CyanostictusNorth”.
here are four or five species of
Tanganyika Clowns, divided into three
genera. They all look extraordinarily similar
andarewithoutdoubtverycloselyrelatedto
one another. The division into different
genera depends on the very different form
of the teeth. Such characterswere formerly
considered of great significance when
evaluating phylogeny. Nowadays this is no
longer the case. It is, in fact, just amatter of
time before some scientist examines these
charming little fishesandputsall thespecies
together in one genus. But that hasn’t yet
come topass.
Firstgenus:
Eretmodus
ThisgenuswaserectedbyBOULENGERback
T
LakeTanganyika in theheart of Africa is a vast aquarium.The fish-enthusiast
visitorwill encounter the first cichlids in the surf and in thebarelyankle-deep
waterof the shorezone,which–at least in the southernpartof the lake, ie in
Zambia – appears to be populated by sparkling jewels. These are the little
cichlidsknownasTanganyikaClowns.
TanganyikaClowns
byMoritz Leber
in 1898. It is officially monotypic to the
present day,with only the single species
E.
cyanostictus
, likewisedescribed in1898 and
assigned to this genus. But were the
TanganyikaClownstobeassignedtoasingle
genus as mentioned in the introduction,
theywouldbecalled
Eretmodus
.
The type specimens of
E. cyanostictus
originated from the southof the lake,where
these fishes always exhibit the blue spots
that gave them their name.The situation is
somewhatdifferent in thenorthof the lake.
Here therearepopulations that haveonlya
few spotsor noneat all,andwhosemouths
are in addition always noticeably more
subterminal, ie situated further beneath the
head, than in their southerncousins.For this
reason Ad KONINGS, who has an excellent
knowledge of the cichlids of the great Rift
Lakes,believes that thenorthern
Eretmodus
are an as yet undescribed species that isn’t
identical with
E. cyanostictus
– a viewwith
whichTAWIL (2005)alsoconcurs.
Secondgenus:
Spathodus
Only a year after
Eretmodus
, BOULENGER
also described
Spathodus
, whose type
species,
S. erythrodon
, looks so similar to
Eretmoduscyanostictus
that theycanbe told
Buntbarsche
