''Amphilophus zaliosus'' is a species of cichlid that inhabits Lake Apoyo in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

. It is known in the aquarium trade as the arrow cichlid. It is an elongate species in the

Midas cichlid ''Amphilophus citrinellus'' is a large cichlid fish endemic to the San Juan River and adjacent watersheds in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In the aquarium trade ''A. citrinellus'' is often sold under the trade name of Midas cichlid. ''A. citrinellus ...

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

. The arrow cichlid shares its habitat with five other recently discovered species of this complex. Genetic evidence from Apoyo supports a hypothesis that the six known species of the lake evolved via sympatric speciation.

Appearance

The yellow background color, common among the ''Amphilophus'' cichlids of Nicaragua, is absent in the arrow cichlid. The background color is silver to greenish gray. Breeding specimens can be entirely black.

Conservation

The arrow cichlid is the only endemic Lake Apoyo cichlid that has been evaluated by the IUCN. It has been rated as Critically Endangered on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

. Among the small body of information regarding populations of the species of this group, four other species may have smaller populations and/or ranges than this fish in Lake Apoyo: ''

Amphilophus flaveolus ''Amphilophus'' is a genus of cichlid fishes from Central America, ranging from southern Mexico to Panama. The genus currently contains 23 species, including several that are well-known from the aquarium trade. However, studies led by Oldřic ...

'', '' A. chancho'', '' A. supercilius'', and '' A. globosus''. The final member of the complex, '' A. astorquii'', constitutes about eighty percent of the native cichlid breeding population in the lake.McCrary JK, Lopez Perez LJ (2008): El monitoreo de las mojarras (''Amphilophus'' spp.) en Nicaragua con aportes sobre su ecologia y estado de conservacion en la Laguna de Apoyo ; Revista Nicaraguense BIODIVERSIDAD 1:43-50
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References

* FishBase (2006) Eds. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. World Wide Web electronic publication
fishbase.org
version (07/2006).

External links

"Mojarras de Apoyo a Museo Smithsonian" (in Spanish)

"Hallan Nuevas Mojarras" (in Spanish)

"El Nuevo Charco de Suenos de Darwin" (in Spanish)

* ttp://www.gaianicaragua.org/amphilophuszaliosus.html Amphilophus zaliosus in its natural habitat {{Taxonbar, from=Q136101 zaliosus Fish of Central America Fish of Nicaragua Taxa named by George W. Barlow Fish described in 1976