Publication2 med aquascape Publication1cs complete | Page 203

Its
Chuco
Time!
Sibrand Martens share’s his experience keeping and
spawning this underappreciated riverine cichlid
Chuco intermedium belongs to a group of rheo-
philic fish where there are two other members as-
signed to the complex, C. godmanni and C. mi-
crophthalmus (type specimen). Fernández Yépez,
erected the genus in 1969; however Sven Kulland-
er 1996 proposed Vieja as a new genus to assign
the fish too. Over the years they have moved in
and out of different genera including Theraps,
where they may possibly find themselves again? A
recent study, McMahan et al 2010, constructed a
molecular phylogeny of 90 species of cichlids and
found that all members assigned to the Chuco
complex are in fact most closely related to the The-
raps genus. A suggested review of species is pro-
posed, so time will tell if Chuco intermedium is in
fact Theraps intermedium?
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