Amphilophus margaritifer

[crenipterus svenagalus]

Whatever. Some people love Don, some don't. Guess I'm just inexperienced and envious. Let's keep this on track.

More info here but none of the fish look even remotely similar to the fish I posted above.

lmao! yup, you sure are...

 

[crenipterus svenagalus]

well, ken just pwned and laid down the verdict. im satisfied. thought for a second there may be a new rarity for us mfkers to acquire.

 

[ewok]

MM - where do you dig up these obscurities? i am not getting into that debate about don or whether this fish is a hybrid. i'm talking about just this fish in general - how'd you get to know of this name? past time to find out what's the rarest of rare?
i'm not being sarcastic or whatever, i'm just curious where you dug up this name from. cheers.

 

[soupy1977]

Looks a little like what I would imagine if a Festae and a Green Texas crossed. Whatever it is it's beautiful.

 

[saltydog_1]

MM - where do you dig up these obscurities? i am not getting into that debate about don or whether this fish is a hybrid. i'm talking about just this fish in general - how'd you get to know of this name? past time to find out what's the rarest of rare?
i'm not being sarcastic or whatever, i'm just curious where you dug up this name from. cheers.

not sure where modest man came up with it, but i was reading in the burntbarsch bulletin (aca's official publication a perk of being a member) about it just this week.

 

[Modest_Man]

I was going through Don's site, under his expeditions section he has some PowerPoints. This fish is on a slide labeled as such.

Ken, if it's a hybrid what is it a hybrid of? The guys on www.cichlidae.com have told me that this photo is from his first edition book, The Cichlids of Central and North America, which came out in the early 90's, well before the modern day hybrid craze.

Several of the experts there believe it might be a naturally occurring hybrid, though none of them have given guesses as to what the parental lineage would be.

I'm not ruling out that it isn't a hybrid, I've just not ruled out that it is until I get a little info to back up the hybrid claim.

 

[Modest_Man]

I have the two BB's that talk about A. marg. but I've got them out in some boxes in the garage, I need to go dig them up. I let my membership expire so I can't view them online.

 

[Modest_Man]

Triple post for the win.

I shot Don off an email asking him about them and linking him to several posts on www.cichlidae.com. I'm quite interested to hear what he has to say on the subject.

 

[fishfarm]

The only person who "may" have caught the real margaritafer is Rusty Wessel and he believe they are most likely A. robertsoni. No one has this fish, a few claim they do. I have collected extensively in the region this fish is supposed to exist and we have never found it. It is not in Lake Peten. The fish pictured is not it, no matter what Conkel claims
Original description:

• <LI type=disc>As Heros margaritifer.
• Günther, Albert; 1862; "Catalogue of the fishes in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Acanthopterygii, Pharyngognathi and Anacanthini in the collection of the British Museum"; Catalogue of the fishes in the British Museum London; i-xxi + 1-534.

Type locality: Lago Petén, Guatemala

Here are the closest fish I have collected that resemble it, First is a robertsoni type from the Rio Tabasco and second a longimanus type from the Rio Rappa.
Ken

 

[fishfarm]

How about selling Amphilophus "species conkelii" to my LFS? He has some awesome fish, and I've been a customer, but it is fair to have questions. I wonder about all the "wilds" he sells. The quality is often super and sometimes poor too -- never seems to be anything but an extreme. Some of the fish he ships to my area are really rough, but about 10% are the best I've seen.

Perfect example, what he sells as Am sp. conkelii is the Orange form of Paratheraps fenestratus "Catemaco"
He does have some nice fish, why he does these other things I do not know.