What genus?

[cyatide]

Hi all,

yesterday I visited a friend of mine who has just gotten some new fish.
He was very surprised and a little bit disappointed when I told him that those he was told to be Cyathopharynx are, to me, everything but Cyathos!

Here are two pics of this fish: What genus does it belong to?





Ciao,
Paolo Salvagiani

[Tom Williams]

Surely Opthalmotilapia probably ventralis?

[tanganyikanhunt]

My vote is ventralis too!

[Thomas Andersen]

Hi Paolo,

I'd say Ophthalmotilapia ventralis too. Does you friend know were they have been collected?

All the best, Thomas

[denisreplay]

hi, i'm the friend of paolo salvagiani, my names is denis.
i've bought this fish in germany, to african cichlid. de, and the proprietary he sad me that are cyatho foai chisanse.











wath do you think? i've other foto about males in coloration, but are not too much good, if you want tomorrow i give you already.

[denisreplay]

2007102610922_IMG_1652_1.JPG

[Thomas Andersen]

Hi Denis,

I'd still say Ophthalmotilapia ventralis. Can you show us some pictures of a fully colored male? From you pictures it seems that the body is somewhat darker colored, with a lighter colored head - is that correct?

All the best, Thomas

[mime]

Hello Denis

I also think it is a O. ventralis, because:

1. body proportions, especially height to length and
2. mouth habitus: mouth size to eye, especially mouth width, visible on picture 1 (male) and picture 4 (female)

to me are clearly different to the genus Cyathopharynx.

Greetings
Michael

[denisreplay]

hi i' ve a new foto about this fish.
it's difficult to me fotografh this fish because they stay colorated only a few second because are wild fish, and i've only about 2 weeks.i hope for next week the fish will be more coloureted because i see colorated only in the night beetwen midnight and one o clock .
thank you for all that you are doing for me.
denis lampredi

[Philippe Burnel]

seems to be really nice.... ophthalmo.......

[sidguppy]

another clue that really makes this an Ophtalmotilapia species:
the scales!
Cyathopharynx has tiny scales.....like other tiny scaled fishes it has a pearly sheen, similar to Bathybates, Haplotaxodon, Cyprichromis microlepidotus etc.

Ophtalmotilapia has more visible "regular type" scales and your fish have these too.

last but not least: Cyathopharynx misses the yellow lappets on the ventrals. ventrals of Cyathopharynx may have a yellow point, but never a lappet. Ophtalmotilapia does have them; the finray splits and/or broadens into a yellow triangle.

[Thomas Andersen]

Yes, Cyathopharynx has much smaller and more numerous scales than Ophthalmotilapia: 48-67 vs. 36-40 along the longitudinal line to be precise

Denis, thanks for the additional photo. I can't help thinking that your fish may have been collected somewhere else than at Chisanse, which should house a blue form of O. ventralis. Your fish appears much darker, almost black and looks quite similar to the forms found at Kachese/Chimba....



....and Moliro:

tangmap.gif (34.03 KiB) Viewed 2204 times

Map from http://www.tanganyika-cichlids.com

Any thoughts on this?

All the best, Thomas

[cyatide]

Hi guys,

I'm happy to read that you all agree with me!

Enzo, a dear friend of mine and Denis, is keeping this beautiful Ophthalmotilapia.
He was told this variant is from Nundo, rather close to Chisanze in Zambia, which looks very similar to Denis' Ophthalmos, isn't it?





Photos by Enzo Marino

Cheers, Paolo

[tanganyikanhunt]

Beautiful fish! Thanks for posting!

[AnGsThAsE]

Hi,
the fishs you have are Ophthlmotilapia ventralis Nundo.
I've got them, too. but mine are juvenil.... and they start to get color...

[Thomas Andersen]

Paolo,

yes they sure looks similar to O. ventralis from Nundo. I didn't know that their body coloration could be so dark. Very nice fish indeed!

All the best, Thomas