What is it? If were going to sort things into boxes of similar things, how should we distinguish among them as to which are either so similar that they go in one box or different enough that they should be divided between two boxes? And how will we know when we have the same number of boxes as there are kinds of things to put in them? And if we insist on more and more boxes to account for tinier and tinier differences until not even we can tell them apart, shall we not be tempted to just lump them into as few boxes as practicable and have done with the whole project? ¶ As you could no doubt have guessed, Ive been contemplating our dear friends the Cryptoheros. When I began watching videos of fish that different aquarists and collectors call C. cutteri, I was having a hard time seeing them as the same species, and I was also having difficulty distinguishing them from other species, To make matters worse, the reports of aggression of these fish called cutteri were surprising, even given that they are Cryptoheros. ¶ And Im not alone. There has been considerable discussion about whether C. cutteri might not simply be a sort of C. spilurus and, if not, to what extent they are different. They are clearly very, very closely related. (And Im not going to mention that other species thats involved in this confusion. I will not.) ¶ Theres also C. chetumalensis which is what some scientists call fish from the northern end of the range of C. cutteri. But if C. cutteri is just a sort of C. spilurus, then could C. chetumalensis still be a separate species? Well, yes, I guess it could. ¶ Oh hell, look at the fish. This is what I think of when I hear cutteri. Watch them chase that other huge cichlid away from their nest. Pretty exciting, isnt it?
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:09:50 +0000
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