The real Nanochromis nudiceps

[GaryE12 10]

Look at this fish! It's a strange one indeed.

It's one of the many misidentified fish in our hobby, with a story behind it.

When I started with fish, all my books featured the common Nanochromis nudiceps, and the kribensis cichlid, both from Africa. Only they didn't. Importers had missed the identification and put someone else's name on the fish. Kribs were Pelvicachromis pulcher from Nigeria (P kribensis from Cameroon is a rarer, smaller, prettier fish) and hobby nudiceps were Nanochromis parilus. N parilus lived closed to the Congo (DRC)'s capital Kinshasa, and were far easier to catch. For a while, they became common, and now are sought after occasional visitors. They are lovely fish in their own right, but in older literature, misrepresented. Exporters wouldn't go after the harder to get to real nudiceps because everyone thought they already knew the fish. The name mistake squished the market, as it did for the true Pelvicachromis kribensis.

I found out about this name cross up 30 years ago, and vaguely but not optimistically wanted to see the real thing. I didn't think it was better or anything - it was all simple curiosity. I like Nanochromis and have kept a lot of the species in the group (at various times parilus, teugelsi, splendens, consortus and transvestitius). I had never seen the one the books said was common.

I got them mixed with teugelsi recently, and it took some growing of them and advice from the real experts for me to be able to sort them out. The two species occur close together and aren't wildly different. Stripe patterns, colours and a red blotch behind the female's eye mattered. So here they are, one of my holy grails found - Nanochromis nudiceps.

 

[Back in the fold8 6]

I like this very interesting story . I have to wonder what other mixups and false stories , now taken as fact , have permeated the hobby . This may not interest the casual hobbyist but if a guy takes a real interest in the hobby and its history then this is certainly interesting .

 

[GaryE12 10]

I think it's just an honest error of the time, though I have to wonder since African fish were disproportionately affected, if there was one guy who had one job at one time...

I grew up with Pristella tetras misidentified, along with a few other fish. Sometimes, the fish is in the trade before it has a name, and sometimes someone screws up and everyone else just repeats it. There aren't a lot of people who worry about what the scientific names are, unfortunately, because they are the key to getting more info on any fish.

 

[Back in the fold8 6]

I think it's just an honest error of the time, though I have to wonder since African fish were disproportionately affected, if there was one guy who had one job at one time...

I grew up with Pristella tetras misidentified, along with a few other fish. Sometimes, the fish is in the trade before it has a name, and sometimes someone screws up and everyone else just repeats it. There aren't a lot of people who worry about what the scientific names are, unfortunately, because they are the key to getting more info on any fish.

Well of course it’s an honest error but why hasn’t it been corrected ? Africa is the bastard step child of the aquarium hobby in my opinion . South America and Asia get all the glamour and attention .

 

[GaryE12 10]

I've never understood why we're so poor at self correcting. I think the names become English, as common names. If an English speaking person realizes a scientific, Latin name is Latin, then it's hard. If they think it's just a weird English word, they relax and learn it. I find it a weird thing in our culture. The percentage of English speakers who are outright against learning other languages is wild. So it makes it easy to perpetuate misidentifications. We like what we're used to.
Look at how many aquarists got outright mad at the redescription of Corydoras. If you read it, it makes sense and allows us to learn about the fish more easily. I've met people who say won't buy from a seller who uses the new valid name. People are strange.
Kribensis is an English word now. I see people writing about one Corydora, two Corydoras. That's been regularized into English. I love this language partly because it is open to change, but its speakers can be less so.
It matters greatly to me whether someone is discussing Pelvicachromis pulcher, kribensis, taeniatus or drachenfelsi, because I'm into that group of fish. Most people only ever encounter pulcher, so the name mistake doesn't matter to them.

In the world of killies, identifying species is important - to killie keepers. To most people, they couldn't care less. A fish is a fish, so call them that can be an attitude out there. I've met many fishkeepers who don't even know what the fish in their tanks are, and aren't curious about finding out.

 

[Back in the fold8 6]

You know what Gary ? Most people just flat don’t care . I understand why they reclassify and change names and it does bug me but only because I have to learn a new name for something I’ve been saying for years . Personally I like using Latin names . I love that look of bewilderment on people’s faces . Makes me feel smart too .

 

[GaryE12 10]

I'm lucky to be in a position to speak 2 languages. I don't know how Spanish speaking aquarists are in your part of the world, but French speaking aquarists just use Latin names with ease. Do they mispronounce them? According to my German speaking friends, they do. According to my French speaking friends, the Germans butcher the pronunciations. As an English speaker from Quebec, I pronounce them with more of a French accent. But how we say them isn't very important. Once we all stop throwing shade at each other, Nanochromis nudiceps is the same fish to all languages, where blue Congo Cichlid works for half a dozen species and doesn't work for any of them as a result. Those half dozen fish look alike, but are different sizes, and sometimes different to keep.
A. striatum killies are funny, because Americans say str eye atum. I say st ree atum. I am, of course correct!
Or not. When we write the name of the fish, which has no agreed upon common name, we communicate. When I sat on the edge of a dusty truck in Central Africa talking fish, we were from Gabon, Austria, France, Denmark, and Canada, and at home some spoke Austrian German, standard German, Danish, Parisian, Quebecois and Gabonese French, English and several Gabonese regional languages between us. But we knew what fish we were after, via Latin. In Benin, in an interior village without electricity or running water, we met a young guy who discussed the local fish with us using up to date Latin names. He didn't say Hemichromis guttatus, but Rubricatochromis guttatus. He was up to date, which was fun for the guy who had fairly recently named the Genus and that I was translating from African French for. That conversation in the middle of nowhere went somewhere.