I thought I was posting to this more recently started thread when I posted to a link of an older, related thread.
Sorry I am not that adept at maneuvering about the site.
Here again was my recent post:
I don't know who this joker is, but he's bent on attempting to prove his superiority and making unjustified fish cost analogies, at my expense it seems.
So if a little more information may clarify and not muddy waters, I will offer.
The midas I received from Las Isletas many years ago were collected and shipped by at-the-time Univ. of Nicaragua professors/researchers who have cumulatively performed (and continue to do so) extensive work on the Nicaraguan Amphilophus complex (see McKaye, Stauffer, et al).
My contact stressed to me the midas cichlids they collected in this particular area behind Las Isletas should be designated as different from and not to be mixed with the general Nicaraguan midas cichlid population in the trade at the time.
They collected these fish exclusively in a shallow, turbid (not clear waters), where muddy substrate and heavy plant growth predominated.
This is unlike the deeper, more clear, boulder-strewn habitats from which Lake Nicaragua citrinellus are typically associated.
All ages of this morph were found in this area, and not immediately outside of it. So it was not a breeding ground for adults, nor a nursery for young.
For anyone who's read about the midas species complex in the Nicaraguan great lakes, this is a prime example of how sympatric speciation can begin. In other words, a new species can form by exploiting a different environment adjacent to or within but not physically separated from the original form. The new form drifts apart from the established species by ecological speciation.
As proven time and again, this has and continues to occur at mind-boggling rates in the Nicaraguan crater lakes.
Incidentally, I've provided Nicaraguan fish for further studies to Elmer, Meyer, et al as well. Keeping tabs on these forms as I've tried to do does indeed provide a benefit to researchers as well as aquarists.
So there's a quick 'Isletas' midas cichlid history, for what it's worth.
Sorry I am not that adept at maneuvering about the site.
Here again was my recent post:
I don't know who this joker is, but he's bent on attempting to prove his superiority and making unjustified fish cost analogies, at my expense it seems.
So if a little more information may clarify and not muddy waters, I will offer.
The midas I received from Las Isletas many years ago were collected and shipped by at-the-time Univ. of Nicaragua professors/researchers who have cumulatively performed (and continue to do so) extensive work on the Nicaraguan Amphilophus complex (see McKaye, Stauffer, et al).
My contact stressed to me the midas cichlids they collected in this particular area behind Las Isletas should be designated as different from and not to be mixed with the general Nicaraguan midas cichlid population in the trade at the time.
They collected these fish exclusively in a shallow, turbid (not clear waters), where muddy substrate and heavy plant growth predominated.
This is unlike the deeper, more clear, boulder-strewn habitats from which Lake Nicaragua citrinellus are typically associated.
All ages of this morph were found in this area, and not immediately outside of it. So it was not a breeding ground for adults, nor a nursery for young.
For anyone who's read about the midas species complex in the Nicaraguan great lakes, this is a prime example of how sympatric speciation can begin. In other words, a new species can form by exploiting a different environment adjacent to or within but not physically separated from the original form. The new form drifts apart from the established species by ecological speciation.
As proven time and again, this has and continues to occur at mind-boggling rates in the Nicaraguan crater lakes.
Incidentally, I've provided Nicaraguan fish for further studies to Elmer, Meyer, et al as well. Keeping tabs on these forms as I've tried to do does indeed provide a benefit to researchers as well as aquarists.
So there's a quick 'Isletas' midas cichlid history, for what it's worth.
