Sp. "Chomba"?

[Aquamojo]

Central American cichlid apparently collected near Laguna de Términos, Campeche. From a friend. "There is a locality called Chomba south of Laguna de Términos, Campeche, although it isn't terribly close to "Río San Joaquín, the headwaters of the Río Chumpán", which empties into Términos... but nearby." Never heard of the fish.

[Mark Smith]

This is a photo by Don Conkel from his book "Cichlids Of North & Central America" which was first published in 1993 as a hard copy edition, and can be seen on page 166.

This fish, along with other individuals depicted in Conkel's book, are controversial, in that some may be hybrids, either created on his farm intentionally/unintentionally, or found in the wild. Additional "species" depicted in the 1993 edition of his book are:

"Tulija" on page 165
"Darsti" on page 167
"Nicapa" on page 168
"Huitiupan" on page 169
"Las Flores" on page 170

The species that is depicted on page 164 as "Brindisi" is a juvenile Vieja argentea.

[Bernard GBX]

It looks like a mix of P. managuensis (rear) and V. synspilus (front)...

[Lee Nuttall]

As Mark points out, definately the same fish from Don's book. Most of those listed species look like hybrids apart from "Brindidi" and "Nicapa" . I couldn't say if they were naturally accuring or intentional, only the author can tell us this? However in the authors defense, the book is 20 years old.

Are the profiles included in the revised edition as i only have the original hardback?

[Mark Smith]

Hard to say, as I only have the first edition.

Does anyone know if Conkel has, in the past 18 1/2 years since the first edition was published, commented on the difficult to place/aformentioned "species"? If not, it sort of doesn't look good...

I do rememer him commenting/defending the image of what he was calling A. margaritiferum on page 92, some years ago on this site.

[Willem Heijns]

You can find this "old" topic here .

[Mark Smith]

By the way, did T.F.H. and or Conkel give Cichlidae.com permission to post this image?

[smitty]

It is things like this that keep me captivated in the hobby.

[Norcal_Cichlid]

Don has admitted that at least one of those fish is a hybrid in a article a few years back. Don't have the link but it basically was a Carpintis/Labridens cross from where 2 irrigation ditches met in Mexico. I don't think Don intentionally creates hybrids but some of the things I have gotten have indeed been hybrids. Nice guy though, he's fun to chat with.

[Mark Smith]

How about his sp. "Brindisi". Did he ever admit that is is argentea?