Laetacara araguaiae color forms

[dwarfpike]

I currently have a pair of the purple form buckelkopf's and will be hopefully upgrading their tank soon. I see the blue form available lately and got me thinking ... do we know the range for each color form? I know the species overall range, but I was curious if we know which river systems each of the two come from.

The reason being, while I don't do true biotope tanks (my lack of a green thumb means I pretty much just use mosses and anubias), I do like to match the dithers to the cichlids.

Anyone happen to know the assorted systems?

 

[Mike Wise]

I don't think anyone has described which color forms come from which locality. Now that mostly scientists and commercial collectors are able to collect in Brazil - who don't really care about color morphs for the most part - I don't know if this will be answered soon.

 

[dwarfpike]

Thanks for the replay Mike,

That's too bad. I've seen both the purple and blue forms listed as being from the Rio Araguaia before, so who knows. I certainly haven't been able to find anything anywhere online. I find it hard to believe both come from the same system, unless they were separate species. I know some people that have kept both forms that have noticed a fair aggression difference between them ... so perhaps ...

 

[Mike Wise]

Dr. Rosemary Lowe-McConnell (1975) has a list of species from the mid-upper Rio Araguaia. One of them is a dwarf acara (Laetacara) that she lists as "Aequidens sp. Purple". I'm pretty sure this is L. araguaiae.

 

[dwarfpike]

Most likely, and the purple form is the one I have. That will work out then. I would then (probably incorrectly) assume the blue is from the Tapajos and maybe the Xingu, while the Tocantins is probably the purple. I guess without any accurate data, I'll treat them as such in terms of tankmates until something else is published to the contrary.

 

[Mike Wise]

Who knows? There could be purple color morphs in the Xingu, Tapajós and Ilha de Marajo, and blue morphs from the Tocantins/Araguaia system. I wouldn't base collecting location solely on color. I personally tend not to mix color morphs unless absolutely necessary. That way, if someone discovers that the 2 forms/morphs are different species, you have both species pure.

 

[dwarfpike]

Oh, I completely agree with that. I've been railing against mixing new races with old on a different site, citing how science and DNA have been splitting species up right and left. I mean, how many of use thought there would ever be 5 convict cichlid species 25 years ago? The idea behind treating them as different river systems (for me) means I'd keep them in separate tanks.

 

[DaRe]

What color forms are there? Purple and?

 

[dwarfpike]

Blue. I've only had the purple, but people I've talked to that have kept both noticed a fair aggression difference.

I got mine from the store that listed this as a picture, purple form -> http://s1273.photobucket.com/user/T...merican Cichlids/Laetacaraaraguaiae1.jpg.html

The blue is more two toned -> http://www.suephoto.com/system/appl.../6dc20c01c7ed6dbefcd9adfbf7a855dc9c7ebe8a.jpg

Though both are beautiful in my humble opinion.

 

[viejo]

Which 'morph' is considered more aggressive? Sounds a lot like the situation with curviceps & dorsigera.

 

[dwarfpike]

If I remember right, the blues were the more aggressive race ... I'll see if I can search back and double check. The discussion was on another site about 4+ years ago.

 

[dwarfpike]

I thought the female had been displaying to the male lately, but he kept chasing her off. Guess I should have looked more closely before starting a long over due water change eh?