Butterfly splitfin

Ameca - mosquito fish ( Ameca splendens)

The Ameca mosquito fish, commonly called ( Ameca splendens) Flitterkärpfling or Amecahochlandkärpfling, is a viviparous freshwater fish in the family of Goodeids from western Mexico. In nature, the stock is gone.

Features

The Flitterkärpfling has the typical shape of a Hochlandkärpflings. The squat body appears cylindrical in shape between the pointed head and long tail stem. The transparent dorsal fin is significantly behind the middle of the body and ends at the beginning of the caudal peduncle. It is triangular in females and short, extended form of flags in adult males and a large area. The pectoral fins are transparent. In females, the pelvic fins and the anal and caudal fin silvery with black spot drawing. Males carry on the anal fin the andropodium called copulatory organ. Dominant males show in the middle of the caudal fin permanently a large black vertical stripes; with them anal and caudal fins are white to bright yellow lined. Basic color is a grayish olive. Below the lateral line, the females are dark gray to black mottled. Male Flitterkärpflinge show from eye to approach the caudal fin a broad dark longitudinal band which is superimposed by luminous glow shed. The belly is pale or spotted. Depending on the light, the flanks of the fish shimmering metallic blue, green or sunny yellow. Males can reach a total length of eight inches. Females are up to twelve inches significantly larger and fuller.

Fins formula: D 13-14, A 15-16, 14-15 P, V 6-7.

Dissemination

The type locality is the eponymous Río Ameca in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. However, the describer also call deposits in the adjacent Rio Teuchitlan. Since the initial description Flitterkärpflinge were no longer detected in these two rivers and their indents.

Until the early years of the 21st century, the only known locality of the city Ameca remained the " Balneario Teuchitlan " north of the town Teuchitlan, ten kilometers to the east. The aggregate in concrete Quelltopf the main source of the Rio Teuchitlan is about 170 square meters and between 30 and 150 centimeters deep. The source container, which can be accessed via concrete steps, is the main bathing pool this recreational facility that includes several swimming pools, a giant slide, cabanas, BBQ area, restaurant and a large children's playground. About two ponds of the slow-flowing Rio Teuchitlan carries the water to the south, a few miles away in the reservoir " Presa La Vega ".

Again, the stock is now extinct. In the Mexican highlands, the habitat of all Goodeids, no further biotopes of Flitterkärpflings are known. The IUCN Ameca splendens performs about as "in the nature of extinct ". 1981 and 1983 it could be as neozoon in Rogers Spring, Nevada, found the current status is unknown.

Ecology

The source pot has a slightly rocky, covered mostly with fine gravel and sand underground. In contrast, the bottom of the low-flow processes is covered with mud. The describer named for the type locality, a year-round average temperature of the water to 28 ° C and gave for the month of April 32 ° C to. Aquarists who the source pot biotope visited in the late 1990s, found an average of 25 ° C and these measured with unknown method parameters: pH 7.0; Carbonate 4 ° dH; Total hardness 3 ° dH. Nitrate and nitrite are 0 mg / l As a dense vegetation of higher aquatic plants a chickweed came ( Ceratophyllum sp.) And Water Hyacinth ( Eichhornia crassiceps ) ago. The rocky ground and the walls of the source pot were completely coated with diatoms. Other fish species were Zoogoneticus quitzeoensis, Poeciliopsis infans, Poecilia sphenops as well as an exposed as food fish " Tilapia " species in the genus Sarotherodon.

Flitterkärpflinge feed mainly phytophagous. In nature, they grazed diatoms fields, but also took insect larvae and small crustaceans on.

Reproduction

In addition to body size and coloring, the shape of the anal fin is the clearest visible feature of gender discrimination. All representatives of the viviparous subfamily Goodeinae the first rays of the male anal fin form a shapeless patch, which andropodium. This is not a copulatory organ but rather a tool that facilitates the fertilization success. During mating, the male and female genital openings are tightly pressed against each other so that the motile sperm can be transferred. The ensuing development of the fertilized egg is unique in the freshwater fish world. The hatching in utero embryos remain there in so-called Ovarhöhlen and are supplied by formed from embryonic intestinal cells Nährschnüren, the trophotaenia, with nutrient solution. The trophotaenia be visible to the people born after 50 to 60 days juvenile fish for several hours to a few days before they fall off. There is no supply fertilization. The number of offspring can be up to 30 depending on the size and age of females.

System

The limited on the Mexican highlands a good toothcarps owe their existence to the species-rich interplay of orogenic volcanism and folds during the Pliocene and Pleistocene, emerged as a diverse water landscape. Beginning in front of around nine million years ( dates from this time the oldest fossil Goodeide Tapatia occidentalis ) resulted in the further development of the geological formation of numerous, often isolated niches in which developed one or a few types of Goodeids. The first evidence of Flitterkärpflings took place on February 13, 1949 by Arthur A. Alcorn from the Rio Teuchitlan. Until 20 years later, Robert Rush Miller and John Michael Fitzsimos collected more specimens in the Rio Ameca and described the Flitterkärpfling 1971 in a new, monotypic genus Ameca splendens as.

Relevance to humans

Flitterkärpflinge do not belong to the standard range of the aquarium fish trade, but are offered regularly. The first importation of live captive bred from the U.S. to Germany took place in the 70s of the last century by Entlinger. Especially under on viviparous fishes specialized aquarium lovers, most of the German Society for live-bearing tooth carp ( DGLZ ) organized one cares about the conservation breeding of healthy stocks.

Swell

• Contreras - Balderas, S. & Almada - Villela, P., P. ( 1996): Ameca splendens. In: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.1.
• Greven, H. & M. Great Men (1992 ): Adelphophagy and Ameca splendens oophagy in Smith & Fitzsimons, 1971 Z. ichthyology (2):. 193-197.
• Grier, H. J., Fitzsimons, J. M. J. R. & Linton (1978 ): Structure and Ultrastructure of the testis and sperm formation in Goodeid teleosts. J. Morphology 156 (3): 419-438.
• Large - Wichtrup, L., Greven, H. ( 1981): On the structure and function of the trophotaenia at Goodeids ( Teleostei, Cyprinodontiformes ). Verh Dtsch. Zool. Ges 74: 230
• Miller, R. R. & J. M. Fitzsimons ( 1971): Ameca splendens, a new genus and species of fish Goodeid from Western Mexico, with remarks on the classification of the Goodeidae. Copeia (1): 1-13.
• Parenti, L.R. (1981 ): A phylogenetic and biogeographic analysis of Cyprinodontiform fishes. Bull. Mus. Nat. Hist. 168: 335-557.
• Radda, A. C. (1990 ): Studies in Cyprinodonts fishing in Mexico, first travel in 1978 and 1979 DGLZ -Rundschau (2):. 12-21.
• Webba, SA, Gravesa, JA, Macias - Garciab, C. & AE Magurrana (2004): Molecular phylogeny of the live bearing Goodeidae ( Cyprinodontiformes ). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 30 ( 3): 527-544.