Publication2 med aquascape Publication1cs complete | Page 155

appealing, in my opinion more hobbyist should strive for smaller fish in larger display tanks! Thorichthys complex has 11 described species, 8 valid, 3 synonyms. There is 1 undescribed species with possibly 3 variations to note. The meaning of Thorichthys comes from Meeks account of jumping fish when observing them. I’m certain Meeks ob- servations were correct, however, the reasons for the fish jumping was probably different to the fish being in a playful mood? The genus Thorichthys was erected by Seth Eugene Meek in 1904. The type specimen was given as Thorichthys el- lioti, named after Professor D.G. Elliot, Curator of the Department Zoology, Field Columbian Muse- um. It later turns out that Thorichthys ellioti is a junior synonym of a much earlier described fish Thorichthys maculipinnis Steindachner 1864 (Artigas Azas, 1996), therefore the type specimen now becomes Thorichthys maculipinnis. A common diagnostic trait with many species of the Thorichthys complex seems to be a black ocelated blotch in the sub-opercul ar area; howev- er of interest this particular trait seems to be lack- ing in Thorichthys callolepis (Regan, 1905). It is interesting because this ocelated spot has a very important use as it is used to trick an intruder into believing that the fish is larger than they appear to be. The fish will blow out its gular pouches, ex- tending the gill plates and displaying the ocelated spots giving the impression that they are large eyes belonging to a bigger fish. As for categorizing into a valid genus, they were put into Cichlasoma by Regan in 1905 defined then by 3 members, C. aureum, C. affine and C. callolepis. Thorichthys ellioti was considered a jun- ior synonym of Thorichthys aureus, together with Thorichthys helleri and Thorichthys maculipinnis. It was only later that both Thorichthys ellioti and Thorichthys helleri were considered to be distinct species by Newton Miller (Miller, N. 1907) and Carl L. Hubbs (Hubbs, 1936) and later by Robert Rush Miller (Miller 1961). In 1983 Sven kullander began restricting Cichlasoma to the South Ameri- can bimaculatum group, so where did this leave the status of the genus? Again in 1996 Robert Rush Miller made a statement giving seal of ap- proval that the Thorichthys complex are a “valid monophyletic group”. Thorichthys was also sug- gested by Kullander in 1996 where the name has been adopted since. It seems for now that Tho- richthys as a valid genus is secure. 7