Let talk about Island Cichlids

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balton777

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Jan 8, 2007
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Rowlett, Tx
FWP's 'favorite cichlid thread' got me thinking about the Cuban cichlid and Haitian cichlid and it got me wondering if these are the only two islands with a cichlid population. And is there only one cichlid native to each of these islands? Could there be more that are undiscovered?

Another example, does Jamaica have any cichlids? New cichlids are still being discovered in places people have been collecting for over a hundred years so it's possible right? A Jamaican would be pretty cool.

And what about the other islands like Puerto Rico? Or the Caymen Islands or hundreds of other tropical islands out there?

And shouldn't this forum be Central/South American/Island Cichlids?

I must have too much time on my hands to be thinking of this stuff lol.
 
Not sure on the fish part, but no, on the "island" cichlids - since each island is part of a greater - for example, Haiti and Cuba would be Central America. As would Jamaica.
 
Trinidad in South America has some cichlids as well, including some Acaras and Pikes.

Also Madagascar has many species of the Paretroplus genus and the more well known Paratilapia genus (polleni and bleekeri, the black cichlids with white spots).
 
I also found this interesting thread where some good info was offered:

"Nandopsis Vombergae has been collected in small numbers in the Dominican Republic and this fish was thought to be extinct. Some people didn't even think it was a valid species. This is a fish from a country that's a three hour flight from an NYC area airport. I know this may be an exception, but new species of Anolis lizards are being found in the west Indies all the time. I wouldn't rule out new cichlids being there either."

http://www.cichlidae.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=789
 
I forgot about Madagascar but was really referring to the "new world" islands. There's several kinds of cichlids in Madagascar. It seems that it would be possible in Cuba or Haiti to have more than one cichlid.


cacichlids said:
I also found this interesting thread where some good info was offered:

"Nandopsis Vombergae has been collected in small numbers in the Dominican Republic and this fish was thought to be extinct. Some people didn't even think it was a valid species. This is a fish from a country that's a three hour flight from an NYC area airport. I know this may be an exception, but new species of Anolis lizards are being found in the west Indies all the time. I wouldn't rule out new cichlids being there either."

http://www.cichlidae.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=789
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That's really cool, thanks for the info and link. I'm going to search aruond the web a bit about that.
 
Juan Miguel Artigas (Editor and Administor of The Cichlid Room Companion site) said:
Just to add a bit of information, Nandopsis tetracanthus has a tremendous variation in Cuba and several subspecies have been erected for this fish (cinctus, griseus, latus, torralbasi). You would not believe the variation between N. tetracanthus. They could be probably regarded as different species. So speciation is taking place in those islands and I would not be surprised N. vombergei is safe and sound and there may even be more different fish in la Hispaniola.
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I haven't heard of any of these subspecies. I'd like to see some of these different variations. Can anyone help?
 
Modest_Man said:
What about N. ramsdeni? Endemic to Cuba...
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Thanks Modest Man, I've never seen a Ramsdeni and only heard of them a couple of times. It's an interesting fish, but I suppose there's not much demand for them.


Further information: Chakrabarty (2006a,b) revised the classification proposed by Kulander (2003). N. vombergi is considered as a synonym to N. haitiensis (Chakrabarty 2006a). Furthermore, the author provides data to clarify the status of N. ramsdeni. Kullander (2003) placed N. ramdseni into 'Cichlasoma' without giving a rationale. Using a molecular phylogenetic approach, Chakrabarty (2006b) showed that N. ramsdeni is the sister species of N. tetracanthus and clearly groups within the other Nandopsis. Concheiro et al. (2007) found Nandopsis to me a monophyletic group based on cytochrome b sequences and point out that this genus does not seem to be closely related to the other mesoamerican cichlids.

References:
•Chakrabarty, Prosanta; 2006; "Systematics and historical biogeography of Greater Antillean Cichlidae"; Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution; pp. 1-91 (crc01237).
•Chakrabarty, Prosanta; 2006; "Taxonomic status of the Hispaniolan Cichlidae"; Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan; (n. 737), pp 17 (crc01236) (abstract).
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Here's the only youtube vid I can find...posted in '06.

[YT]AgxThvruUII[/YT]

I wonder if there's any others I don't know about...
 
There are various cichlid species found on Trinidad and Tobago including pike cichilds, blue acara, etc. although they are found on the South American mainland as well.
 
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