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northwest at Niltepec (Oaxaca, Mexico). An inter-
esting point regarding both guttulatus and zonatus
is that they appear to be the only Paratheraps/
Vieja species whose distribution is Pacific side. The
other species within the complex are Atlantic side.
Could this reinforce the notion that zonatus could
well be a regional variation of Günthers original
described fish?
I believe including Paratheraps guttulatus is very
important to the article as this particular fish is
claimed to be kept by many hobbyist.
Paratheraps guttulatus aquarium stocks are said to
be collected from Rio Sarabia and Rio Manzanita
Isthmus region (Mexico). This locality is well out of
bounds to Günther fish and almost certain the fish
offered are sp.’coatzacoalcos’ populations?
Paratheraps guttulatus from Lago Amatitlan are a
lost species and to my knowledge, specimens have
not been studied or collected for the aquarium
hobby. Therefore I believe the true guttulatus
doesn’t exist as an aquarium species!
The same problems apply with zonatus aquarium
populations. Again many offered for the aquarium
trade are collected from the upper reaches of the
‘Coatzacoalcos’ basin. I have very rarely seen zona-
tus populations offered from pacific side, Rio Te-
huantepec, Rio Niltepec and Rio Zanatepec ranges.
We have seen with the recent study of both
melanura and synspila, colour and distribution is
not always a factor to classify fish as separate spe-
cies. Intraspecific variability applies to many differ-
ent species of fish and could easily become the
case with sp. ‘coatzacoalcos and zonatus. A DNA
taxonomy study needs to be carried out first to de-
termine the validity of each species. Then we still
have the guttulatus problem which in turn could
result in the latter becoming junior synonyms. Until
we find type locality stocks of guttulatus for re-
search, we may be in for a very long wait...?
References:
Günther, Albert C. L. G.. 1864. "Report of a col-
lection of fishes made by Messrs. Dow, God-
man, and Salvin in Guatemala". Proceedings of
the Zoological Society of London. 1864, pp. 144
-154 (crc00137).
Miller, Robert Rush. 1974. "Cichlasoma regani,
a new species of cichlid fish from the Rio Coat-
zacoalcos Basin, Mexico". Proceedings of the
Biological Society of Washington. 87 (40); pp.
465-472 (crc00251).
McMahan, Caleb D.. 2011. "Paraneetroplus
synspilus is a junior synonym of Paraneetroplus
melanurus (Teleostei: Cichlidae)". Zootaxa. (n.
2833), pp. 1-14 (crc03297)
Don Conkel 1993 Cichlids of North & Central
America T. F. H Publications
Kullander and Ready El Salvador 2006
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