Publication2 med aquascape Publication1cs complete | Page 194

Recent taxonomy studies has confused the status of a
favourite cichlid in the Central American hobby….
the colourful Quetzal cichlid…Lee Nuttall explains
more…
The Quetzal cichlid, Vieja melanura is one of the
most fantastically colourful fish to graze the Cen-
tral American cichlid hobby. A highly variable fish,
many boast different colouration and markings,
to a point where our most favourable name
V. synspila has taken a back seat and become a
junior synonym!
Vieja melanura was originally described as Heros
melanurus by Albert Günther in 1862, the type
locality for this fish is given as Lago Petén, Guate-
mala. These were based on 5 syntypes specimens
belonging to the Natural History Museum
(London), from Fredrick Godman and Osbert Sal-
vin collection from Central America.
Carl Hubbs later went on to describe Vieja
synspila in 1935 and originally pointed out its
close resemblance with Vieja maculicauda. It was
only later that Hubbs quickly pointed out the
close relationship between V. synspila and V.
melanura, in that the caudal bar has a downward
slope in synspila and straight in melanura; colour
comparisons are not mentioned at this point.
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