Once more a change of names of well-known aquarium fishes appeared. The different forms of Pelvicachromis taeniatus have been regarded for decades as mere color varieties of the very same biological species. But now a new study has been published which laces almost all "varieties" from Cameroon under the taxon Pelvicachromis kribensis. Only one "variety" from Cameroon has proofed to be so outstanding that a new species, namely P. drachenfelsi has been described for it. This fish was known in the hobby until now under the name of P. taeniatus "Wouri". The name P. taeniatus should be used from now on only for fishes from Nigeria, but it seems that even this is not the last word to be spoken on that fish.

 

All species and forms mentioned above are very beautiful, easy to keep aquarium fish. We currently have some wild collected P. kribensis from Cameroon (collected from Nyete, code 562502 on our stock list, and Bipindi, code 562702) in stock. We also have bred "real" P. taeniatus, a very pretty variety called "Nigeria Red Cheek" (code 562333) and the classic "Nigeria Red" (code 562302). The pictures show wild collected specimens of P. taeniatus that reached us a bycatch from the Benue river in Nigeria. They fit best to the color variety known as "Nigeria Yellow" in the hobby.

 

 

Literature:

 

Lamboj, A. , D. Bartel and E. Dell'ampio (2014): Revision of the Pelvicachromis taeniatus-group (Perciformes), with revalidation of the taxon Pelvicachromis kribensis (Boulenger, 1911) and description of a new species. Cybium v. 38 (no. 3): 205-222.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer