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The dentition is an important character for determining the zebra cichlids of Lake Malawi.
Subdominant male
Cynotilapia pulpican.
Lexicon
Dwarf zebras
Cynotilapia: means "dog Tilapia";
the name refers to the unicuspid
canine teeth". Tilapia is another
cichlid genus.
pulpican: from the mythical Breton
poulpicans, a kind of quarrelsome
elf or gnome that lives in stone
houses.
It is very difficult for scientists working on
these fishes to clearly define the species and
genera in the lake.Fundamentally,dentition is
a fairly well tried-and-tested means of doing
so in cichlids. But even in this respect the
”zebras” of the currently valid genera
Cynotilapia, Maylandia
(=
Metriaclima
), and
Microchromis
make things very difficult for
researchers.
Cynotilapia
and
Microchromis
are
planktonivores and hence have only
unicuspid teeth in the outer row (in
Aufwuchs-feeders there is a mix of unicuspid
to tricuspid teeth in this rowof the dentition).
It has, however, only recently been shown
(T
AWIL
, 2011) that practically all the small
”zebras”, hitherto assigned to
Cynotilapia afra
on the basis of dentition, are in reality
Microchromis
, and that
Cynotilapia afra
has
probably never been maintained in the
aquarium or even seen alive!
A true dwarf
This group includes the dwarf zebra
Cynotilapia pulpican,
which grows to only 6-8
cm long in the wild, usually around 10 cm in
the aquarium, and only in exceptional cases
attains as much as 12-13 cm.The species was
first scientifically described in 2002, but had
already been known in the aquarium for
decades.Even today it is still often sold under
the invalid names
Pseudotropheus
”Kingsizei”
and ”Likoma Blue Frost”.The species is known
tooccur only around the islandof Likoma,but
there are very similar fishes in other parts of
the lake as well.
Aquariummaintenance
Cynotilapia pulpican
should be kept in the
same way as all other Mbuna in the
aquarium. It is best maintained in large
groups of 10 individuals ormore.The sex ratio
within the group is of secondary importance.
Anyone wanting to produce as many young
as possible can combine one male with lots
of females, but the aquarium will look a lot
more attractive if there are more males than
females.There will then always be one or two
males in dominant coloration in the
aquarium - and that is breath-taking!
Literatur
:
Tawil, P. (2002): Description de Cynotilapia
pulpican n. sp. (Pisces,Teleostei, Cichlidae),
nouvelle espèce du lac Malawi, avec
remarques sur les genres Cynotilapia,
Microchromis, Maylandia et Metriaclima. L'an
Cichlidé v. 2: 72-82.
Tawil, P. (2011): Description of a new cichlid
species from Lake Malawi, with
reexamination of Cynotilapia afra (Günther,
1893) and Microchromis zebroides Johnson,
1975. Cybium v. 35 (no. 3): 201-211
