ID This Cichlid

[chloe]

Venustus aka giraffe cichlid

i meant hap not cichlid...my bad

 

[mike dunagan]

hmm, you know you're right. but are haps also classified under peacocks ? I mean are haps a sub group of peacocks or separate category ? they have similar snouts. its hard to tell an ahli / freyeri from a blue peacock at times.

At a time they were in the same group. Now they are seperated. Many seperate them due to the fact that a lot of haps get bigger. In the selling side of the hobby many move slower than the sciencists in changing them around and still keep them in the same groups. So it is not crazy to see haps sold as peacocks, or the other way around.

Haps refer to haplichromis. Not all the "haps" are haps anymore either. In that case this is a nimbochromis.

 

[nishant_datta]

thanks

 

[Marius]

At a time they were in the same group. Now they are seperated. Many seperate them due to the fact that a lot of haps get bigger. In the selling side of the hobby many move slower than the sciencists in changing them around and still keep them in the same groups. So it is not crazy to see haps sold as peacocks, or the other way around.

Haps refer to haplichromis. Not all the "haps" are haps anymore either. In that case this is a nimbochromis.

It was not only the size that led to them being differentiated in two separate groups.

Haplochromines, or "Utaka", or open water hap if you will, are the larger, piscivorous species that have left sandy bottom, or the rock piles for the great "outdoors". Although they might still have a diet based on zooplankton, most of them are specialized piscivores, highly effective and deadly.

Aulonocara species, "peacocks" usually refer to the smaller "haps" ...or rock-dwelling utaka that mainly feeds on zooplankton.


Feeding behaviour, size, spawning behaviour and more have been at the base of the new taxonomy and to keep labelling fish like 30-40 years ago doesn't make sense and it is unacceptable.

 

[mike dunagan]

I was not refering to the scientific reasons for separating them. I was talking of the breeders and sellers. As unacceptable as it may be to you, a large portion do. They also do not sell many mbuna under their correct names either. Just a sad fact of the hobby. Plus peacock is not a scientific term at all, so selling under a trade name is not something you can get mad about. I mean many fish have the same trade names.