The damba (''Paretroplus damii'') is a species of

cichlid Cichlids () are a large, diverse, and widespread family of percomorph fish in the family Cichlidae, order Cichliformes. At least 1,760 species have been scientifically described, making it one of the largest vertebrate families, with on ...

Etymology

The genus name ''Paretroplus'' is composed by the Greek ''Para'' (meaning ''similar to'') and ''Etroplus'' (a closely related genus of Indian cichlids). The Latin species name ''damii'' honors the naturalist Douwe Casparus van Dam (1827-1898).

Description

''P. damii'' is the largest ''

Paretroplus ''Paretroplus'' is a genus of fishes in the cichlid family, all of which are endemic to lakes and rivers of Madagascar. The vast majority are threatened and restricted to the northwestern part of the island.Sparks, J. S. (2008). ''Phylogeny of t ...

'', reaching the total length of about . No sexual dimorphism exists in size or in other characteristics. These fishes have a rounded shape, with a light pink / grey colouration in absence of vertical barring.

Distribution

This species can be found in several river basins in northwestern

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

.Sparks, J. S. and Schelly, R. C. (2011). ''A new species of Paretroplus (Teleostei: Cichlidae: Etroplinae) from northeastern Madagascar, with a phylogeny and revised diagnosis for the P. damii clade.'' Zootaxa 2768: 55–68. This includes populations in far northern Madagascar that some have speculated represented an

undescribed species In taxonomy, an undescribed taxon is a taxon (for example, a species) that has been discovered, but not yet formally described and named. The various Nomenclature Codes specify the requirements for a new taxon to be validly described and named. U ...

, but a comparison of specimens did not support this, instead maintaining them as part of ''P. damii''.Sparks, J. S. (2008). ''Phylogeny of the Cichlid Subfamily Etroplinae and Taxonomic Revision of the Malagasy Cichlid Genus Paretroplus (Teleostei: Cichlidae).'' Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History Number 314 :1-151 In contrast, populations in the Mahanara River in northeastern Madagascar were formerly also included in ''P. damii'', but these were described as a separate species, '' P. loisellei'', in 2011, and populations in the Ankofia River basin in northwestern Madagascar (south of true ''P. damii'') appear to represent a closely related undescribed species.

Bibliography

* Eschmeyer, William N., ed. 1998. Catalog of Fishes. Special Publication of the Center for Biodiversity Research and Information, núm. 1, vol. 1–3. California Academy of Sciences. San Francisco,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. 2905. . * Fenner, Robert M.: ''The Conscientious Marine Aquarist''. Neptune City,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, USA : T.F.H. Publications, 2001. * Helfman, G., B. Collette y D. Facey: ''The diversity of fishes''. Blackwell Science, Malden, Massachusetts, USA, 1997. * Hoese, D.F. 1986: . A M.M. Smith y P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany. * Maugé, L.A. 1986. A J. Daget, J.-P. Gosse y D.F.E. Thys van den Audenaerde (eds.) Check-list of the freshwater fishes of Africa (CLOFFA). ISNB,

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

; MRAC, Tervuren; y ORSTOM, Paris, France. Vol. 2. * Moyle, P. y J. Cech.: ''Fishes: An Introduction to Ichthyology'', 4th. Ed., Upper Saddle River,

, USA: Prentice-Hall. * Nelson, J.: ''Fishes of the World'', 3rd. ed.. New York City, New York, USA: John Wiley and Sons. * Wheeler, A.: ''The World Encyclopedia of Fishes'', 2nd. Ed, London: Macdonald.

References

External links

AQUATAB

Arkive
Paretroplus, Damba Freshwater fish of Madagascar Fish described in 1868 Taxa named by Pieter Bleeker Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Cichlidae-stub