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Female Amatitlania siquia “Rio
Cabuyo” have intense gold color-
ation in their abdomen and un-
paired fins.
While guarding eggs and fry
Amatitlania siquia “Rio
Cabuyo” will display much
stronger barring and lose much
of their gold coloration as seen
on this female.
Costa Rica. The species name is in reference to the
type locality, the Rio Siquia in Nicaragua. As with
many species with an expansive range, there is
quite a bit of variation. While males vary slightly in
the amount of ventral coloration and fin colora-
tion between localities, females are far more di-
verse. There is extensive variation in abdominal
coloration of female convict cichlids which can
range anywhere from red to yellow.
Amatitlania siquia “Rio Cabuyo”: The population
of Amatitlania siquia I will discuss in this article is
from the Rio Cabuyo of the Nicoya Peninsula in
Northwest Costa Rica. The peninsula is separated
by the Cordillera Guanacaste mountain range to
East. The river in which this population is found, as
well as many of the rivers in the area, are quite
variable and depending on the weather can quick-
ly go from a slow meandering river to a rapidly
moving torrent. Like almost all of the rivers in Cos-
ta Rica it is void of aquatic plants except for the
few terrestrial plants that overhang the bank. The
river has plenty of boulders and sunken logs
adorning the mostly gravel bottom. Other species
found alongside Amatitlania siquia in the Rio
Cabuyo include cichlids such as Astatheros alfari,
Astatheros longimanus, Neetroplus nematopus,
and Parachromis dovii. Species such as Astyanax
fasciatus and Poecilia gilli, which are found in al-
most everybody of water, are also present in the
Rio Cabuyo as well as Awaous and Sicydium go-
bies.
I received my Amatitlania siquia from Terrance
Lee, a UCLA graduate student who had finished a
study on these fish. After completing the study,
Terrance donated the fish to the Coleman Evolu-
tionary Ecology of Fishes Lab at California State
University, Sacramento, where I study. Terrance
c ollected the fish in Costa Rica and was studying
ornamentation of females and sexual selection of
the Amatitlania siquia from this location. More on
Terrence’s research can be found in the Buntbar-
sche Bulletin #231 (2005). The fish I received from
Terrence were adult wild fish.. The Amatitlania
siquia from the Rio Cabuyo as well as other popu-
lations found on the Nicoya Peninsula differ in col-
oration significantly from other Amatitlania siquia
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