Island animals, whether lemurs of Madagascar, tortoises of Galapagos or cichlids like tetracanthus or haitiensus seem to remain in a more primitive state than their mainland counterparts.
Perhaps because the lack of large predators on islands, or just plain isolation, (haitiensus is the only endemic cichlid to the island of Hispaniola, and only 2 cichlids, tetracanthus and ramsdeni on Cuba, these cichlids these cichlids remained relatively unchanged _since the islands were formed.
Evolutionary pressures on the mainland, may have allowed the primitive Nandopsis ancestor (similar to haitiensus and tetracanthus) to radiate into Parachromis dovii, managuensus, motaguensus, etc.
Just as the breakoff of Madagascar and India from Africa, kept the primitive cichlids of the genus Paretroplus and Etroplus in a sort of prehistoric timewarp.
so maybe the lack of predation cud be the reason why my little Cuban(and others as I heard) hav little to no fear and are outgoing at such a small size?
