question on closely related goodea

Submitted by kyhokie on 11. January 2014 - 15:43

Hi All, 

quick question from a new user. I currently house goodea atripinnis and goodea gracilis. Of all the information that i find on the internet, some sites say they are two separate species, and some say they are all goodea atripinnis and the gracilis is just a regional variant of atripinnis.  Anyone have current and correct info on these two goodea? 

thanks in advance, 

mike

Forums: 
International Forum

Submitted by Michael Koeck on 18. January 2014 - 11:36

Hi Mike,

this is really a problem. Some people (Omar Dominguez, Kyle Piller) had a quick look on locations of Goodea, and at least when compared the cytochrome - b - gene, it is not possible to distinguish subspecies or species within Goodea, but this might not be the last word. Nuclear genes could give us the answer we are looking for, eventually morphological details as well, and I am sure, the 2 people named in brackets before can help you talking about tendences, but not more at the moment, I fear. For the moment, it might be the best solution in talking about only 1 species, but on the other hand: what we call gracilis are the most eastern representatives and highly endangered, so calling all individuals atripinnis may prohibite any help for these fish as atripinnis isn't endangered at all. So separating gracilis from atripinnis is also a kind of conservation work.... However: locations of Goodea can look completely different, and probably there are more species hidden within the genus than we think about....

Mike

Submitted by thues on 19. January 2014 - 11:45

If it is one species only - and I think it is at least for the moment  - we can say it is a endangered variation of this species. Seperate them - and seperate always after location just to be sure! What is or is not a species of its own or subspecies can change.