Something I noticed over time... cichlids that evolve separately on different continents can have quite the same outcome when filling in certain environmental niches.

Pretty cool cichlid stuff. So whatcha think this is all about???

First example is a pike from S.A. & a stream or riverine cichlid from Africa. Similar colors/shape/and both are hunters.

Next we have a Neet from C.A. & a Tropheus from E. Africa. Both feed of algae and are very aggressive! They have similar head shape & even get white lips.

On that cichlid video thats posted here the fish even evolved differently in the same lake after the rocks had been separated after a big storm and was to dangerous to cross open water. Since the females select males they evolved differently mainly in color morphs as they apparently had different taste.

That pike is funny casue its almost like a goby

Here are two big hunters... one from W. Africa & the other from C.A.

I am sure there are many more examples... this one is spooky! Can you tell which one is from S.A. & which one is from W. Africa?

This post has been edited by Lucky: Jul 21 2008, 12:52 PM

Yeah cichlid speciation rate is pretty wicked fast.

Yeah that pike & the W. African duplicate have similar behavior ...like you mentioned... goby like. Can you see how both fish are similar? Which are which?

Africa?

White lips and yellow, East Africa?

You have those 2 correct!

The last 2 are harder... humn

May need to google the next 2 heh but thats cheating...

OK so here we go, I knwo I am going to ge at least one wrong.

Africians:

Yes those 2 are both Africans.

So which are the S.A & C.A.???

Really swift there Danz!

I dont know much about africans but had to use what I knew about them :)

Oh now CA vs SA... now thats going to be hard!

Nah man... each set has African cichlids & their new world counterpart. You seem to know Africans pretty well. GL!

Best and fastest answer is that those duplicate fish came from a central location. Over time, and i mean thousands and millions of years later they get separated through continental drift and other types of ecological phenomena. After that the fish will start to evolve with respect to their new environments. One great example is the red devil complex, they are almost the same fish genetically, but look different due to environmental factors. For example, the labiatus strains being confined to volcanic crater lakes and midas being mostly confined to river lakes and streams, but you can definitely find a large ugly lipped midas if you look!

The fishes in the second pic from the last, that has the plants in the background, are of SA. The rest are African Kribs.
Mostly guessing. Thx for the pics.

they were selling this one for $7 a piece around here. The neat thing about this fish is that you can see a vietnam flag right behind them black flowers.

Wow! Good eye!!!

There is more to it bro... I know what you are saying about Midas speciation but that is within one Genus, Amphilophus.

All the cichlids here in this post are from a separate Genus that are not even remotely related to each other.

I guess you can say that all cichlids come from a Tilapian though... waaaaaay back in time.

I am also speaking about those fish. If they look similar enough, then they are most likely related. These days ichthyologists are always evolving their perceptions of these fish. The best way to truly find out is to take dna samples from the different fish, then you will most likely see the relation of the central origin, not of all fish but a common ancestors to different species. The red devil complex is just one example, if we look further we can possibly see relatives of the red devils in another continents. Most of what i am saying are things published my nicaraguan ichthyologists and written in spanish.