ceejayt2k;4076839; said:
NICE FISH!! What kind of fish is this? Not a hybrid right?
That fish is what Don Conkel listed in his 1993 book as A. margaritiferus. According to him, he lost them all in a freeze in 1989 (they were in an outdoor pond on his farm in Florida). The validity of the ID was never proven.
Here is Conkel's explanation (quote):
"We collected the fish in question as juveniles (2"+) amongst 400-500 other extracted fishes. We did not know exactly what we had at the time of capture. We shipped them back to Tampa, placed them into a grow out pond and harvested them later in the fall of '83. Only then, was it apparent we had something different and unique. No dna studies were being made at that time by anyone. That technology came about years later, in the early 90's. The first dna papers about CA fishes were produced by Roe, Conkel and Lydeard in 1996.
Unfortunately, we lost this species in the freeze of December 1989. Only one 8-9" specimen survived."
Personally, it looks like a panamensis or carpintis hybrid to me, but we'll never know. Could be a naturally occurring hybrid.
Also, to my knowledge margaritiferus is represented in the record by just one preserved species from forever ago that doesn't look like this fish. Perhaps it's an unidentified species now extinct or nearly exctinct. Based on the story above I'd give a possiblility of it being the result of hybridization in the growout pond. Too bad the no one thought to tank a few fish indoors for safe keeping. I'd have certainly done that with such a rare animal.
Interesting reading here.
http://www.cichlidae.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5489&hilit=margaritiferum
Sorry for the derail OP. Now get those tigrina! You'll have a nice market for them here on MFK!
