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'Aequidens' sapayensis: The Gold Acara
by Dean Hougen
Acquisition
I wasn't paying much attention to the auction, like most cichlid auctions, this one was dominated by overpriced African, rift-lake cichlids. The few "South American" cichlids being sold were mostly Discus and Angels, which had been selectively bred for many generations so that they would not resemble their beautiful ancestors. So, I was talking quietly with a friend sitting beside me while the auctioneer ran through the fish.
"Going once."
The friend on my other side nudged me.
"Going twice"
Some sort of rare Aequidens, he told me.
"And ..."
"Yo! I yelled, shooting my arm in the air."
The auctioneer took my bid, looked for another, and sold me the fish. I don't remember exactly how much I paid, but I thought they were quite the bargain. They could have been $200.00, for all I knew when I bid on them, but fortunately they weren't. They were more along the lines of what you might pay for Blue Acaras in a store.
Interestingly enough, that's just what they looked like: three young Blue Acaras. (Blue Acaras are supposedly 'Aequidens' pulcher, but they have been bred commercially for so long that it is difficult to ascertain what wild stock they might have originated from.)
Hmmn.
"Aequidens sapayensis. Probable trio," the bag read. Well, one was larger than the other two, but it seemed a bit premature to be sexing them at 1" long. Still, if these really were what they were said to be, I hoped that the size difference really did reflect a sex difference as well. The auction was in Chicago, so it was late the next evening before they were placed in a tank at my home in Minneapolis. I had changed some of their water at the hotel the evening of the auction and again the next morning, but the water looked rather foul in their bag when I got them home. The seemed to adjust well to their new tank, however.
Two days later I found one of the smaller fish dead. I couldn't tell if the stress of the trip or one of its siblings killed it, but my probable trio was now a probable pair. I kept the label from the bag, which listed the seller's name and phone number, in case my probable pair turned into a definite loner.
Identification
I hadn't heard of 'Ae.' sapayensis before, so my first step was to pull out my copy of Die Buntbarsche der Neuen Welt: Südamerika. Sure enough, there they were, in the chapter entitled "Der Buntbarsche der ..Aequidens" -pulcher-Gruppe." There was a page of text, and pair of pictures, no less. All this told me three things: (1) sapayensis is valid species, (2) they are 'Aequidens' sapayensis until they are assigned to some genus (as Aequidens has been restricted to exclude this group of species), and (3) my fish resembling Blue Acaras as they did, stood a chance of being 'Ae.' sapayensis.
That was pretty much where I let matters sit until I decided to write this article. Two years had past, the fish had bred successfully (see Keeping and Breeding, below), and I had accepted that my fish were, indeed. 'Ae.' sapayensis. As adults they still resembled Blue Acaras quite strongly, although they had horizontal rows of golden dots instead of the bluish dots of Blue Acaras. I had taken to referring to them as my "Gold Acaras."
As I prepared to write this article, however, I became curiousas to how the seller in Chicago had identified his fish. While there are a few small differences between these Gold Acaras and the Blue Acaras of the aquarium hobby, these differences are assuredly not striking. I doubt that I would notice anything unusual if I came across these fish while perusing sellers' tanks for rare fish. I doubted even more that most importers, wholesalers, or retailers would have noticed anything either.
Fortunately. I had kept the seller's tag from the auction, although I hadn't had to call him for more fish. Mike Brousil, the seller, told me that he got his fish from Steve Covolo. He also told me that Steve had either received his fish from, or at least had them identified by Dr. Wayne Leibel.
Wayne was unsure of the details (it had been four or five years now since his role in this saga), but was able to confirm that he had probably identified the ancestors of my fish somewhere along the route. He told me that 'Ae.' sapayensis were sometimes found in pet shops at small sizes being sold as Green Terrors, having been brought in from the wild misidentified. He said that based on the fact that they were found in Green Terror territory and that they matched closely with good color photos published in the German aquarium literature, he was convinced they were 'Ae.' sapayensis.
Good photos and collecting data probably provide as accurate an identification as can be reasonably had with these fish. The description of 'Ae.' sapayensis was done ninety years ago and the descriptions of the species most likely to be confused with 'Ae.' sapayensis (which are 'Ae.' pulcher. 'Ae.' coeruleopunctatas, and 'Ae.' latifrons) were made twenty-five to fifty years before that. As was the general case for descriptions of the time, these descriptions are brief and are made from a small number of specimens (one in the case of 'Ae.' sapayensis). All but one of them lacks drawings and, of course, all of them lack photographs.
by Dean Hougen
Acquisition
I wasn't paying much attention to the auction, like most cichlid auctions, this one was dominated by overpriced African, rift-lake cichlids. The few "South American" cichlids being sold were mostly Discus and Angels, which had been selectively bred for many generations so that they would not resemble their beautiful ancestors. So, I was talking quietly with a friend sitting beside me while the auctioneer ran through the fish.
"Going once."
The friend on my other side nudged me.
"Going twice"
Some sort of rare Aequidens, he told me.
"And ..."
"Yo! I yelled, shooting my arm in the air."
The auctioneer took my bid, looked for another, and sold me the fish. I don't remember exactly how much I paid, but I thought they were quite the bargain. They could have been $200.00, for all I knew when I bid on them, but fortunately they weren't. They were more along the lines of what you might pay for Blue Acaras in a store.
Interestingly enough, that's just what they looked like: three young Blue Acaras. (Blue Acaras are supposedly 'Aequidens' pulcher, but they have been bred commercially for so long that it is difficult to ascertain what wild stock they might have originated from.)
Hmmn.
"Aequidens sapayensis. Probable trio," the bag read. Well, one was larger than the other two, but it seemed a bit premature to be sexing them at 1" long. Still, if these really were what they were said to be, I hoped that the size difference really did reflect a sex difference as well. The auction was in Chicago, so it was late the next evening before they were placed in a tank at my home in Minneapolis. I had changed some of their water at the hotel the evening of the auction and again the next morning, but the water looked rather foul in their bag when I got them home. The seemed to adjust well to their new tank, however.
Two days later I found one of the smaller fish dead. I couldn't tell if the stress of the trip or one of its siblings killed it, but my probable trio was now a probable pair. I kept the label from the bag, which listed the seller's name and phone number, in case my probable pair turned into a definite loner.
Identification
I hadn't heard of 'Ae.' sapayensis before, so my first step was to pull out my copy of Die Buntbarsche der Neuen Welt: Südamerika. Sure enough, there they were, in the chapter entitled "Der Buntbarsche der ..Aequidens" -pulcher-Gruppe." There was a page of text, and pair of pictures, no less. All this told me three things: (1) sapayensis is valid species, (2) they are 'Aequidens' sapayensis until they are assigned to some genus (as Aequidens has been restricted to exclude this group of species), and (3) my fish resembling Blue Acaras as they did, stood a chance of being 'Ae.' sapayensis.
That was pretty much where I let matters sit until I decided to write this article. Two years had past, the fish had bred successfully (see Keeping and Breeding, below), and I had accepted that my fish were, indeed. 'Ae.' sapayensis. As adults they still resembled Blue Acaras quite strongly, although they had horizontal rows of golden dots instead of the bluish dots of Blue Acaras. I had taken to referring to them as my "Gold Acaras."
As I prepared to write this article, however, I became curiousas to how the seller in Chicago had identified his fish. While there are a few small differences between these Gold Acaras and the Blue Acaras of the aquarium hobby, these differences are assuredly not striking. I doubt that I would notice anything unusual if I came across these fish while perusing sellers' tanks for rare fish. I doubted even more that most importers, wholesalers, or retailers would have noticed anything either.
Fortunately. I had kept the seller's tag from the auction, although I hadn't had to call him for more fish. Mike Brousil, the seller, told me that he got his fish from Steve Covolo. He also told me that Steve had either received his fish from, or at least had them identified by Dr. Wayne Leibel.
Wayne was unsure of the details (it had been four or five years now since his role in this saga), but was able to confirm that he had probably identified the ancestors of my fish somewhere along the route. He told me that 'Ae.' sapayensis were sometimes found in pet shops at small sizes being sold as Green Terrors, having been brought in from the wild misidentified. He said that based on the fact that they were found in Green Terror territory and that they matched closely with good color photos published in the German aquarium literature, he was convinced they were 'Ae.' sapayensis.
Good photos and collecting data probably provide as accurate an identification as can be reasonably had with these fish. The description of 'Ae.' sapayensis was done ninety years ago and the descriptions of the species most likely to be confused with 'Ae.' sapayensis (which are 'Ae.' pulcher. 'Ae.' coeruleopunctatas, and 'Ae.' latifrons) were made twenty-five to fifty years before that. As was the general case for descriptions of the time, these descriptions are brief and are made from a small number of specimens (one in the case of 'Ae.' sapayensis). All but one of them lacks drawings and, of course, all of them lack photographs.
Species | Dorsal spines/rays | Anal spines/rays |
'Aequidens' pulcher | XIII/11 | III/7 |
'Aequidens' coeruleopunctatus | XV/10 | III/8-9 |
'Aequidens' latifrons | XI/9 | III/8 |
'Aequidens' sapayensis | XV/10 | III/8 |
Gold Acaras | XIV/9 | III/7 |
Table. Spine and ray counts from the original descriptions of 'Ae.' pulcher, 'Ae.' coeruleopunctatus. 'Ae.' latifrons, and 'Ae.' sapayensis and from two "Gold Acaras." |