Multiple new Steatocranus species

[Nebraska_cichlids]

I just went over a brief summary of an article published by Ulrich Schliewen in the German aquarium magazine "DATZ." Apparently, the article describes a number of new Steatocranus species of fairly small size. Does anyone know anything about this? I should be able to get my hands on a copy of the magazine, but it may take a while now that the volume of mail picks up because of the holidays.

Janos

 

[tjudy]

New described species or newly discovered undescribed species? I am aware thta he (or someone.. but I think it is him) is working on reclassifying the genus, and I am sure that some of the species that have been around a while as S. sp. will be named. The two smaller undescribed types I have seen are sp. 'dwarf' and sp. 'red eye'.

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Ted, I think we are talking about newly discovered undescribed species here. As I said before, so far I have only seen a brief summary of the full article. The summary depicts one of the fish. You may want to visit the magazine's website (www.datz.de) and click on "Inhaltsverzeichnis" (Table of contents) for the December 2008 issue. From there on you should be able to navigate the site without knowing German. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Janos

 

[tjudy]

I could not find that December 2008 isue available to look at. The archives go up to November. There is an image of the December issue on the upper left, but it does nto link anywhere.

 

[Pelvicachromis]

http://www.datz.de/QUlEPTgxODAzNSZN...5F126D3F99E58361D4C287E3C663987E8DDDB4BD20098

it's not the whole article, but gives overview.


Keith

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

I received a copy of the December 2008 issue of DATZ in today's mail. Really interesting article. Uwe Schliewen shows photos of six new Steatocranus species (or at least local variants): sp. Nki, sp. ultraslender, sp. intermediate, sp. Maluku, sp. Brown Pearl, and sp. Kisangani. Sounds like most of the new species stay pretty small. Live specimens of two species (Nki and ultraslender) now swim in tanks of the zoological collection of Bavaria in the city of Munich. My favorites are Nki (less than 3" max. total length) and ultraslender (looks like a flattened version of T. depressum).

Janos

 

[tjudy]

WHere are they collected?

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Ted, there you go:

sp. Nki: At the Nki Falls in the Dja River(somewhere in the border area between Cameroon and DR Congo)

sp. Kisangani: strong currents in the rivers Tshopo, Maiko, and Lindi in the Kisangani area (Eastern part of DR Congo)

sp. ultraslender and intermediate: currents of the Congo River (somewhere between the villages Luozi and Inga); somewhat downstream of where S. tinanti is collected.

sp. Maluku: Malebo Pool

By the way: When reading the DATZ magazine, I noticed a brief description of Parananochromis sp. Sanaga by Anton Lamboj. Apparently, the fish found their way to Europe as contaminants in a shipment of P. brevirostris. Anton succeeded breeding the fish. Ted, you've got my permission to bring some to the U.S. when going overseas next year. :wink:

Janos

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Hi Jeff,

how do your "cf. casuarius" compare to the pictures of the new Steatocranus species that I showed you?

Janos

 

[aquaticclarity]

Janos,

My cf. casuarius are VERY similiar to the sp. kisangani. The head shape is ever so slightly different but I'm guessing that may be a factor of age, sex, size, and the picture angles.

Jeff

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Do you have a picture of the cf. casuarius for posting?

 

[aquaticclarity]

I have a great picture of the wild male-but it's not mine it's Ted's. If he gives his permission to post it I will do so.

Jeff

 

[tjudy]

You can post it, but it is also in my gallery for Steatocranus casuarius. I have not given it the designation 'cf' in the gallery.

http://www.tedsfishroom.com/wp/imag...es/west-african-cichlids/steatocranus-gallery

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Thanks, Jeff and Ted.

I agree with you that the fish look similar to sp. Kisangani. (Please save some of yours for me!) It might be worthwhile to get a positive ID from Uli Schliewen or Anton.

Do you know where the cf, casuarius were collected?

As for you, Ted: I noticed a picture of S. irvinei on your website. Do you keep that species or is this somebody else' fish?

Janos

 

[viejo]

Here is a shot of one of the cf. casuarius youngsters that I got from Jeff a while back.

 

[tjudy]

I have never kept S. irvinei. All my images are at other aquarists' homes or from shows.

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Nice shot, Viejo!

Jeff, I'll send you an email tonight.

 

[Wingsrule]

The new species are very exciting. The coolest one was the sp. "super slender". Anton came down here about 3 weeks ago and gave a talk on riverine cichlids of West Africa. He had warned me before he got here that I would see some pics of species never seen before and he was right. It was by far the best talk I have ever been. Uwe was able to collect some of the species and is going back down there in 2009 and hopes to get some others as well. There was also a very cool Lamprologus species he discussed. I will have to look at my notes for the name. It is a species from the Congo that occurs in very deep water and is blind.

 

[westafrica]

Very interesting Dave!

Regarding the blind Lamprologus, is it L. lethops? If so, do you know if that species has been collected (or at least if some new infos have been collected?).

Thanks in advance!

 

[Nebraska_cichlids]

Images of some of the new species are now on display here:
http://www.cichlidae.com/gallery.php?genus=Steatocranus