NEWS105
3
t was around 1909 that the first cichlids
from Central America arrived in the
aquaria of Europe and the United States.
Theyweregorgeous fisheswith fascinating
brood care, but they soon acquired a
reputation for being extremely aggressive
and vigorous diggers. These “incorrigible
villains”weregiven thepopular name "Jack
Dempsey". Jack Dempsey, actually born
WilliamHarrisonDempsey inColorado,was
theWorld Heavyweight Boxing Champion
from 1919 to 1926. The cichlid’s behavior
was compared to his fighting style and so
the fishobtained itspopularname,which it
stillbearstoday,eventhoughonlyaveryfew
peoplenowknow thehistorybehind itall.
Manynames, one fish
The Jack Dempsey was initially termed
Cichlasoma biocellatum
. This species was
described in 1909 by C. T. Regan, on the
I
Manythingsthatweregardasobviousareinfactverydifferenttohowtheyseem.
Oneexamplerelatestothehugevarietyof fishspeciesavailable formaintenance
intheaquarium,behindwhich liesavastamountofhardworkandaneven larger
amountof know-how.Wehumansdon’t knowby instincthow tounderstanda
fish.Wehave to learnhow to interpret thebehaviorof thesecreaturescorrectly.
Otherwise there is a tendency towards anthropomorphism, and invariably,
withoutexception,that leadsuscompletelyastray.
The JackDempsey
- anold friend inanewguise
byFrankSchäfer
basisofaspecimenhehad received fromJ.
P.Arnold,apioneerof theaquariumhobby,
whose energetic importation activities
were responsible for the discovery of
numerous fish species. However, in this
case Arnold apparently gave an incorrect
collecting locality, namely "Mañaos, Rio
Negro". But there are certainly no Jack
Dempseys in Brazil, and there never have
been.Either Arnoldmust havebeengiven
an incorrect collecting locality by the
seamanwhobroughthim the fish,or there
was a mix-up with a different species. Be
that as itmay, the fishwas to be found in
the literature under this name -
Cichlasoma biocellatum
- until the late
1980s. It was then realized that
C.
biocellatum
was a synonym, that is a later,
repeat, description of a species that had
been described, again by Regan, as
Heros
octofasciatus
back in 1903. Without the
disastrously incorrect collecting locality
Regan would undoubtedly not have
committed this
lapsus
, as he would have
known that his
C. biocellatum
actually
came from Central America, and would
undoubtedly have compared it with the
Central American cichlids known to him
and not just, as it turned out, the only
cichlasomine species known back then
from the vicinity of Manaus, namely
Cichlasoma coryphaenoides
.
For around 20 years thereafter it was
unclear towhat genus the JackDempsey,
whose specific name was now firmly
established as "
octofasciatus
", should be
assigned. In fact it was clear only that it
didn’t belong in thegenus Cichlasoma.So
some people called it "
Cichlasoma
" (with
inverted commas), others – contrary to
improved knowledge -
Cichlasoma
(without invertedcommas),andyetothers
Nandopsis
.Theproblemwasn’tsolveduntil
2007, when Schmitter-Soto erected the
newgenus Rocio anddesignated the Jack
Dempsey as type species. Because the
genus nameRocio is feminine, the species
name, which is a Latin adjective, had to
Freshwater
German-bredBlueDempsey All photos:FrankSchäfer
