In somepopulations of thenorthern
Eretmodus
the female is noticeablydarker in color than themale.
This is a female fromKavalla (D.R.Congo).
All Photos:FrankSchäfer
Pair fromKavalla,male left.
Female
E.cyanostictus
fromMoba.
Male
Eretmoduscyanostictus
fromMoba.
apart for certain only on the basis of their
teeth. In
Spathodus
these are long and
cylindrical, but broad and spatulate in
Eretmodus
. However, the
S. erythrodon
pictured by TAWIL (2005) has none of the
vertical bars so typical of
Eretmodus
. By
contrast the second species of thegenus,
S.
marlieri
, looks quite different. In some
respects it deviates from the other
Tanganyika Clowns, both in its brood care
and in its relatively marked sexual
dimorphism,whichwillbediscussed inmore
detail later.
Thirdgenus:
Tanganicodus
Thisgenuswaserected in1950byPOLL,and
is monotypic with the single species
T.
irsacae
.Once again it is tooth structure – in
this case long and pointed - that separates
the genus from
Eretmodus
and
Spathodus
.
There is, however, one color character that
makes it relatively easy to distinguish this
species, todate knownonly from thenorth
of the lake, from the other Tanganyika
Clowns: in
Tanganicodus
there is always a
strikingspot in themiddleof thedorsal fin.
TAWIL (2005) regards thedifferencesseen in
the
Tanganicodus
fromKavalla (D.R.Congo)
andMToto (likewiseD.R.Congo) assogreat
as to constitute additional, undescribed
species of the genus. On that basis
Tanganicodus
would containone described
and twoundescribedspecies.
The species fromKavalla is characterizedby
the absence of vertical bars; it has only
turquoise-colored
spots
arranged
horizontally.The species fromMTotocanbe
recognizedby the fact that the light vertical
