NEWS 110
3
Cichlids
The red jewel cichlids are some of the most beautiful freshwater fishes on Earth. They are also very easy to keep
and breed. But identifying the species is one of the most difficult exercises in ichthyology.
The mystery of
Hemichromis sp. "Fire Lips"
by Frank Schäfer
These two photos were taken on the day of arrival and document the extraordinary beauty of the
fishes.The blood-red lips, which look as if painted on, are the reason for the name ”Fire Lips”.
All photos: Frank Schäfer
ntil 1979 things were all very easy in
both the aquarium hobby and science
alike. Only two species of cichlids were
recognized in the genus
Hemichromis,
namely the Jewel Cichlid, which was termed
Hemichromis bimaculatus
, and the Green
Jewel or Five-Spot Cichlid, which was called
Hemichromis fasciatus
. In fact several other
species hadbeendescribedprior to1979,but
the complexity of characters in
Hemichromis
,
more precisely the highly individual variation
in color and body form depending on
ecological circumstances, coupled with
massive mood- and age-dependent
variability in color, invariably led to the
species characteristics given in the
descriptions being regarded as insufficiently
distinctive.
U
The great revision
Then Paul V. Loiselle published a revision of
the genus
Hemichromis
in which he
distinguished three species of green jewel
cichlids - namely
Hemichromis fasciatus, H.
elongatus,
and
H. frempongi
- and eight
species of red jewel cichlids -
H. bimaculatus,
H. cristatus, H. paynei, H. guttatus, H. stellifer, H.
cerasogaster, H. letourneauxi,
and
H. lifalili
.
From this time on aquarists took a somewhat
closer look and interpreted the revision
(which unfortunately contained mixed-up
illustrations) in a variety of ways. Repeated
attempts were made to resolve the resulting
confusion. Thus Freyhof (1995) corrected a
number of fundamental points and was
