Hemitaeniochromis

Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia

Hemitaeniochromis is a Lake Malawi and the upper Shire endemic living genus of cichlid. There are two types brachyrhynchus, Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia and Hemitaeniochromis described until 2012. The genus was erected in 1989 by David H. Eccles and Trewavas Ethelwynn to spin the piscivorous Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia from the genus Haplochromis.

Features

Among the diagnostic features of the genus Eccles and Trewavas gave to the single-pointed, widely spaced teeth in the outer row of teeth of the upper and lower jaw, and a Haplochromines color pattern with dominant horizontal strips and indistinct transverse bands.

Oliver renewed the genus description in his description of Hemitaeniochromis brachyrhynchus and stressed that the horizontal stripes darker than the vertical bands that extend to the middle of the body-side stripes in the front part of the body consists of several spots and appears continuous rather in the rear. It runs from the eye or just behind the gill cover to the end of the caudal peduncle. About this strip at the base of the dorsal fin, there are four to five dark spots. The jaw teeth of species that have a standard length of more than 10 cm, are unicuspid. The gaps between the teeth are exactly as wide as the tooth bases. Smaller individuals possess closely related with unequal teeth, bicuspid tooth tips. The foot is at an angle of 50 to 60 °. The upper side line moves at its rear end down and there is only separated by a non-porous flake from the lower side line. This feature occurs in most cichlids of Lake Malawi.

Species

So far, two types have been described:

• Hemitaeniochromis brachyrhynchus Oliver, 2012
• Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia ( Regan, 1922)

Nine other, often known only through photographs species were assigned by various authors of the genre. However, often you do not show the characteristic for the genus color pattern and have an unknown dentition.