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Sam Borstein
Introduction
genus Cryptoheros with the type specimen Cryp-
toheros spilurus, leaving Archocentrus spinosissi-
mus and Archocentrus centrarchus as its only
members (Herotilapia multispinosa) was later
moved to this genus). In 2007 Schmitter-Soto de-
scribed the genus Amatitlania for convict cichlids.
He also described three new species of Ama-
titlania to join the well-known Amatitlania nigro-
fasciatus. These three species were Amatitlania
coatepeque, Amatitlania kanna, and Amatitlania
siquia. Of these species, Amatitlania siquia will be
the focus of this article.
Amatitlania siquia has the largest range of all the
convict cichlids and occurs from Honduras to
One of the reasons I am so drawn to keeping cich-
lids is their fantastic parental behaviour. Convict
cichlids were one of the first Central American
species I kept and are perhaps one of the finest
examples of the length to which parental cichlids
will go to take care of their young. The taxonomic
nomenclature regarding convict cichlids has been
in flux in recent years and while the purpose of
this article is not to address the current taxonomic
state, some information on the subject is neces-
sary which I will briefly discuss it here. Convict
cichlids and their relatives were for many years
classified under the genus Archocentrus. This
changed in 2001 when Allgayer described the
Amatitlania siquia “Rio Cabuyo” is a cave spawner like its
relatives. For bigger pairs, a large flowerpot provides a
fantastic spawning site.
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