They're Not Just Convicts Anymore

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They’re Not Just Convicts Anymore By Daniel Spielman All Photos by Daniel Spielman

Introduction Convicts get no respect, with many a cichlidophile turning up his or her nose at the sight of a group on Convicts in a tank or a bag of fry in an auction. It’s time for that to change. Easy to breed and exhibiting wonderful parental care, Convict cichlids (Cryptoheros nigrofasciatus) have long been staples in the hobby. Indeed, for many new fishkeepers, the satisfaction of watching a pair of Convict parents herd a group of fry around a tank sparks the initial desire to keep other mem bers of the cichlid family. Indeed, my fish cichlids were Convicts, and watch ing them care for their fry definitely got me hooked. The contrast with trying to keep guppies or swordtails from eating their own offspring is striking (how did eating one’s own young ever evolve in the first place?). However, the very fact that Convicts spawn so readily in the aquarium causes many hobbyists to quickly lose interest in the species. Although Convicts occasionally appear on experienced hobbyists’ lists of most favorite cichlid, the problem is they are just too common and too easy to breed. Typical Convict spawning jokes involve two fish and a wet paper towel, and one often feels fortunate to break the $1 barrier at the auction to avoid the indignity of having to bring one’s fish back home again at the end of the monthly club meeting. Is there another species that suffers from the same level of disrespect as having fry labeled “bag o’ Convicts” right next to a “bag o’ rocks” at the sales table? The situation for Convicts started to change somewhat a couple of years ago when Rusty Wessel introduced Cryptoheros sp. ‘Honduran Red Points’ (also known as the HRP). With their beautiful mixture of sky blue body markings, reddish areas on the fins, and milder behavior as compared to standard Convicts, these fish have rapidly grown in popularity (unfortunately, hybrids of these fish have also appear on the market, so be careful what you’re buying). Descriptions of interestingly colored newly collected wild Convict specimens are also sprinkled throughout the recent literature. However, de spite such reports, the status of these fish remained unclear: new species or color variants?

The Genus Amatitlania Fortunately, some new scientific work published in 2007 should help to improve the standing of Convicts in the aquarium hobby. Juan Schmitter Soto’s paper, “A systematic revision of the genus Archocentrus (Perciformes:

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Cichlidae), with the description of two new genera and six new species”, ZO- OTAXA, 1603:1-76, 2007, offers a new look at Convicts (as well as other familiar Central American species such as the Jack Dempsey [now Rocio octo- fasciata ]). Schmitter-Soto identified enough specific anatomic differences between Convicts and closely related fish including Cryptoheros panamensis, C. spilurus, C. cutteri, C. septemfasciatus, C. myrnae, C. nanoluteus, and C. sajica to justify putting Convicts into their own genus, Amatitlania. Further more, within this new genus, four distinct species are described with collection sites listed in Guatemala and Honduras (Amatitlania nigrofasciata), El Salva dor (A. coatepeque), Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica (A. siquia), and Panama (A. kanna). Figure 2 shows the relative distributions of these species.

I find it interestingly to note that the status of the HRP, the fish that origi nally renewed my interest in Convicts, remains unclear. From the information I’ve been able to gather, the collection sites of the HRP most closely corre spond to the distribution of A. siquia. However, the scientific description from the article doesn’t seem to match the fish in the hobby. A. siquia is described in the paper as being a relatively deep-bodied fish (laterally compressed), which doesn’t correspond, at least, to the HRP that I’ve kept in my tanks. This also brings up another interesting point, scientific descriptions, as exemplified by Schmitter-Soto’s article, rarely stress color or behavior, but rather scale and ray counts, shape of the gut, ratio of body parts, and other ana tomical features. To emphasize this point, I’ve included photos of the type

2 Cichlidae communiqué #168

Figure 3. Photos of holotype specimens for:

Amatitlania nigrofasciata

Amatitlania coatepeque

Amatitlania siquia

Amatitlania kanna

Aadapted from J. Schmitter-Soto, Zootaxa, 1603: 1-76, 2007. Clearly, fish lose some of their aesthetic appeal after soaking in alcohol!

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specimens used to identify the various Amatitlania species (see Fig. 3). Clearly, although alcohol preserves critical anatomy, the aesthetic qualities so prized by hobbyists, including color and behavior, are not retained in such museum speci mens. For now, we’ll have to refer to the HRP as Amatitlania or Cryptoheros sp “Honduran Red Point” while awaiting further scientific classification.

Keeping and Breeding Amatitlania kanna After reading Schmitter-Soto’s article and seeing Jim Ellenberger offering Amatitlania kanna "Bocas del Toro" on his fish list, I jumped at the opportunity and bought four fish (2 male, 2 female). I had a 29G tank in the garage that I had been keeping cycled for use as a grow-out tank. Having no current batch of fry, I figured better to add some new fish rather than, God forbid, have an empty tank.

Figure 4. Minimalist aquascaping.

In contrast to my usual obsessing about aquascaping, this tank was embar rassingly minimalist, a sponge filter and two empty flower pots. Apparently, having a nice looking tank is not a requirement for breeding success. Rather, in this case, other than a once a day sprinkling of New Life Spectrum pellets, I totally ignored the tank (although the tank was included within my weekly 50% water changing routine). Doubtless in response to my benign neglect, the fish were quite happy and one pair spawned about two months after first adding them to the tank. The water parameters were as follows: pH = 7.7, moderate hardness, 80o F. 4 Cichlidae communiqué #168

Prior to spawning, my A. kanna showed an interesting mixture of yellow and gold coloring on the unpaired fins, with the female having additional yel low on the belly. Perhaps an improved marketing strategy would be to call them “Panamanian Yellow Points”. However, when guarding fry, both the male and female developed a highly contrasting black and white color pattern with the yellow colors in the fins fading. In typical biparental cichlid child rearing fashion, the parents dutifully escorted their brood of about 40 fry slowly around the tank. The two other non-breeding adults in the tank were harassed to the point of spending most of their time behind the sponge filter. However, despite the small tank size, they suffered no lasting damage or even torn fins. After the fry were free swimming, I added an additional rock to the tank to provide an algae grazing surface. With twice daily feedings of decapsulated brine-shrimp eggs, the babies grew quite quickly, reaching about 0.5” in six weeks. Unfortunately, a broken tank heater resulted in the loss of all but two of the fry. Oh well, with enough active neglect, I’m sure I’ll have another batch of fry soon. One thing that I have not had chance to do is observe the behavior of A. kanna in a community tank. I’m interesting in seeing if they are as aggressive as the Convicts currently found in the hobby.

Figure 5. Breeding colora tion of Amatitlania kanna "Bocas del Toro": male (above) and female (right).

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Figure 6. The happy couple guarding fry.

Conclusions I think it’s time to take a renewed interest in Convicts. Just as with Rift Lake cichlids, we should strive to keep the Amatitlania species separate and avoid hybridization. To date, I have yet to see A. coatepeque or A. siquia even offered for sale. Keeping pure strains is not only important for the hobby, but it should be fascinating to see if hobbyists can identify behavioral variability among the species, perhaps reflecting their slight anatomical differences. Such behavioral variations (along with color patterns) go to the heart of what makes keeping cichlids so interesting, yet descriptions of behavior and personality are often missing from scientific literature, which is often based on classifications from preserved specimens. Here I think the hobbyist can make an important contribution to our understanding of these fascinating fish. After all, most keepers of East African cichlids would cringe if I were to describe Lake Ma lawi fauna as “a bunch of blue fish with some color variations”. I, for one, am looking forward to bringing the much-maligned Convict group back into the fold of “cool” fish for the modern hobbyist.

References Juan Miguel Artigas Azas, “Cryptoheros, the small Central American cich- 6 Cichlidae communiqué #168

lids”, The Cichlid Room Companion, 2006.

Juan J. Schmitter-Soto, A systematic revision of the genus Archocentrus (Perciformes: Cichlidae), with the description of two new genera and six new species, ZOOTAXA, 1603:1-76, 2007.

Cryptoheros sp.? “Honduran Red Point” Pair Photo by Rolf Mader Upcoming Programs

July 12 Bob Boone, Stress Management

August 9 Anthony Tu, Frontosa Fanatics

September 13 Ad Konings, TBD

October 11 Vin Kutty, Pike Cichlids

November 8 TBA

December 13 Charles Rambo, Dwarf Cichlids

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