Anus is stuck with something black for 2 days

[GaryE]

That was key info!

The Aphyosemion found in and around Lake Mai-Ndombe is generally considered an "sp" (undescribed species). I've seen it listed as sp aff elegans, meaning like elegans. It's clearly a member of the elegans complex, with cognatum and the others we're looking at. But species ID?

I almost went to that lake a couple of years ago, but the trip fell through. The Nioki location seems to be the end of the road at a stream connected to the blackwater lake. It's where I was told everyone had to transfer to boats.

That's probably not a commercial import, but a hobbyist one. It's not an easy place to get to.

I'd be cautious and call it Aphyosemion sp Nioki Mai-Ndombe, and wait for someone in a killie journal to report on a close look at it. That may already exist if you're the researching type.

 

[confused_aquarist]

Wow this is why I should go on fish forums.
It helped to know that the exporters had to go through a hassle to get the fish and that the species could be undescribed. So now I feel almost comfortable with the fact that things weren't making much sense.

The hobbyists here are super fast at breeding and raising fish. Some people already have F2s. (So I'm already a generation behind them, even though I was one of the first to purchase them)
Maybe, if someone decides to take a further look, then there will be future reports of orange-looking sp aff polli. It'll certainly be different from any of the google images so far; I just wish I had a better camera to take a photo.

Now I'm reading the Huber papers, one of them mentions about the different phenotypes of christyi. I am always bored by those papers, but they contain a lot of important info, like how Aphyosemion frequently have rearrangements in chromosomes to cause variability and how there are patchwork of phenotypes in some Congo regions.

 

[Innesfan]

Key information indeed! From the British killi club site:

https://killis.org.uk/aphyosemion-sp-lake-mai-ndombe-cir-2017/

The German club has a similar listing. Appears more heavily spotted than yours. Not to say there aren't other elegans-group species in the lake and its environs.

Curious--those fellow hobbyists who are on F2s already, what are they calling the species?

 

[GaryE]

Killies are fun. There is so much diversity, and so many peeks into natural history and evolution.

A few years back, a member expressed surprise at the idea there were still undescribed species in the world outside the hobby. Over a few days in Gabon in 2023, we found what were determined to be up to 5 undescribed species of lampeyes - we know very little about these fish, for all the work people have done on them. We were in an area visited many times by advanced hobbyists and researchers.

Unfortunately, fish found now may not be described until long after we're all dead, if ever. There are so few people doing the scientific work on them.

 

[gwand]

Killies are fun. There is so much diversity, and so many peeks into natural history and evolution.

A few years back, a member expressed surprise at the idea there were still undescribed species in the world outside the hobby. Over a few days in Gabon in 2023, we found what were determined to be up to 5 undescribed species of lampeyes - we know very little about these fish, for all the work people have done on them. We were in an area visited many times by advanced hobbyists and researchers.

Unfortunately, fish found now may not be described until long after we're all dead, if ever. There are so few people doing the scientific work on them.

Unfortunately, no one is funding this type of research. It takes a person with a lot of knowledge like yourself, and a lot of money (that rules you put). There are travel costs, shipping costs, money for DNA analysis just to name a few.

 

[GaryE]

It really calls for an ichthyologist, which I'm not. There have been hobbyist descriptions, and a few have even been correct. But you would need access to type specimens of similar fish, museums, papers, DNA equipment... and money. I have, umm, curiosity and an Arts degree.

 

[Innesfan]

It is my impression that there's a lot of ichthyological research and revision being done in killies, just not always where some of us would like it to be. There seems to be a new species in what was formerly Rivulus every month. And lots of revision in other South American killie genera, Nothobranchius especially. Epiplatys, Fundulopanchax and their allies, too

The elegans-group has been puddled, IMO, since the get-go. (I'm still looking for the original A. cognatum that was our introduction to the species in the 50s and 60's and did not have a trace of yellow on it.) I tend to think of the elegans-complex as the Hyphessobrycons of killies. As was the case with that tetra genus, everyone knows it needs a clean-up but nobody seems up to it. Having said that, we've just witnessed the massive revision of Hyphessobrycon. The elegans-group is but a fraction of a genus, so maybe someday soon...

In that vein, I was intrigued by my revisit to the AKA pages for the relevant species thanks to the links that @GaryE provided. The AKA pages themselves desperately need a revision and several of those photos are not, IMO, the species they purport to be. On the other hand, I subscribe to Jean Huber's https://www.killi-data.org/ which is a tremendous source for all things killies, including livebearers. I find Dr. Huber's photos consistently more current and accurate. Similarly his remarks about the various species of the elegans group and the ichthyological challenges they pose amplify this discussion and underscore how big and complex a task a revision might be.