apistogramma rotpunkt/alacrina

[patrick1]

apistogramma rotpunkt

hello my question is if apistogramma sp. rotpunkt1 already is diqribed for his proffesional game

greetings patrick

 

[P.W.]

Hi

Here is the true (?) description of the Ap. sp. Rotpunkt. (Today the correct name is Ap. Alacrina).

http://www.nrm.se/ve/pisces/acara/ap_alacr.shtml


Best regards/ Per

 

[Mike Wise]

Apistogramma sp. Rotpunkt may possibly be a species different from A. alacrina. The Rotpunct forms that have been in the hobby for 30 years do not match either the holotype or paratype forms of A. alacrina precisely. Even Dr. Kullander does not say that they are absolutely the same. He writes.

"Apistogramma alacrina agrees in shape and color pattern with a species known as 'Rotpunkt' in the aquarium hobby, and first
reported by Kullander (1974) as A. sp. aff. taeniatum. Kowlowski (2002) described three different forms of 'Rotpunkt'. The
geographic origin of the aquarium species remains uncertain, and geographic variation within A. alacrina also needs further
analysis."

There are even problems with the type material of A. alacrina. First they come from 2 different river systems. One belongs to the Amazon and the other to the Orinoco. The females collected with the holotype (never in the hobby that I know, but similar to A. sp. Red-point II in Aqualog's SACII, do not show some of the species-diagnostic features described for females in the paper. The paratype (= A. sp. Red-point I in Aqualog's SACII) females match the description of female A. alacrina, but the males do not. There is a possibility that 2 different species were used to describe A. alacrina. If this is the case, then only the descriptions based on the holotype (a male) and the females collected with it can be considered valid. Call me a splitter, but until we get a better understanding of the distribution of the different forms of the Rotpunkt-group I feel it is best not to put the name 'A. alacrina' on any Rotpunkt form - except the holotype form, which has not entered the hobby.

 

[patrick1]

thanks