Amphilophus

Amphilophus
Midas cichlid (A. citrinellus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Cichlidae
Subfamily: Cichlasomatinae
Genus: Amphilophus
Agassiz, 1859
Type species
Amphilophus froebelii
Agassiz, 1859
Synonyms
  • Curraichthys Fernández-Yépez, 1969
  • Erythrichthus Meek, 1907

Amphilophus is a genus of cichlid fishes from Central America, ranging from southern Mexico to Panama. The genus currently contains 23 species, including several that are well-known from the aquarium trade. However, a 2008 study led by Oldrich Rican suggested that several species within Amphilophus should be moved to the genus Astatheros.[1] Species proposed to be moved to Astatheros are A. alfari, A. altifrons, A. bussingi, A. diquis, A. longimanus, A. macracanthus (which would be the type species for Astatheros), A. margaritifer, A. rhytisma, A. robertsoni and A. rostratus.[1] Rican's study suggests that the Astatheros species are more closely related to the Jack Dempsey and rainbow cichlid than to the remaining Amphilophus species.[1]

Several species from this genus are endemic to the small Lake Apoyo (6 species) and Lake Xiloá (4 species) in Nicaragua, and are believed to be the result of sympatric speciation.[2]

Species

There are currently 27 recognized species in this genus:[3][4]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Heijns, W. (July 2009). "Central American heroine cichlids, a phylogenetic approach". Cichlid News. pp. 14–22.
  2. Dittmann, Roesti, Indermaur, Colombo, Gschwind, Keller, Kovac, Barluenga, Muschick, and Salzburger (2012). Depth-dependent abundance of Midas Cichlid fish (Amphilophus spp.) in two Nicaraguan crater lakes. Hydrobiologia 686(1): 277-285.
  3. Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2013). Species of Amphilophus in FishBase. August 2013 version.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Recknagel, H., Kusche, H., Elmer, K.R. & Meyer, A. (2013): Two new endemic species in the Midas cichlid species complex from Nicaraguan crater lakes: Amphilophus tolteca and Amphilophus viridis (Perciformes, Cichlidae). aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology, 19 (4): 207-224.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Stauffer, McCrary & Black (2008). "Three new species of cichlid fishes (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Apoyo, Nicaragua". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 121 (1): 117–129. doi:10.2988/06-37.1.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Geiger, McCrary & Stauffer (2010). "Description of two new species of the Midas cichlid complex (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Apoyo, Nicaragua". Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 123 (2): 159–173. doi:10.2988/09-20.1.