Goodea gracilis
HUBBS, C. L. & C. L. TURNER (1939): Studies of the Fishes of the order Cyprinodontes. XVI. A revision of the Goodeidae. Miscellanous Publications (University of Michigan. Museum of Zoology) 42: pp 1 - 80.
Collection-number: University of Michigan Museum and Zoology, Cat. No. UMMZ-108552. The Holotype is an adult female with 39mm SL. It has been collected by Gordon, Whetzel and Ross on 21.03.1932.
The Holotype has been collected in the Río Santa María (Panuco-system), at Santa María del Río in the state of San Luis Potosí.
The species name is derived from the Latin and refers to the slender form of this fish, compared with its congener, Goodea atripinnis.
Goodea caliente Meek, 1902 (per partem)
Goodea calientis Regan, 1907 (per partem)
Goodea atripinnis Meek, 1904 (per partem)
Goodea gracilis Turner, 1937 (nomen nudum)
Goodea atripinnis calientis de Buen, 1947
This species is distributed on the Atlantic Slope in some upper tributaries of the Río Panuco in the states of Querétaro and San Luis Potosí. It lives also in the ríos Santa Maria and San Juan del Río, maybe also occuring in adjacent areas of the headwaters of the Lerma River basin of the Pacific Slope in the states of Guanajuato and Querétaro (Doadrio & Domínguez, 2004). The recently detected (2010) fish from the Río Metztitlán in Hidalgo may belong to this species, too.
ESU ist short for Evolutionarily Significant Unit. Each unit expresses an isolated population with different genetic characteristics within one species. ESU's can be defined by Molecular genetics, Morphology and/or Zoogeography and help in indicating different phylogenetic lineages within a species. The abbreviation for an ESU is composed of the first 3 letters of the genus, followed by the first 2 letters of the species name and an ongoing number in each species.
Goodea atripinnis is a nightmare for taxonomists. There are so many different types of Goodea, that actually only two ESU's are distinguised, though the number of forms are many. Gooat1 is in use for all the fish west of the Río Pánuco system whereas Gooat2 for the ones from the Río Pánuco system, on this website named Goodea gracilis. As there is a phylogenetic work in process, we leave it that way, waiting for (hopefully) clear results.
Vulnerable
The habitats are rivers, creeks and other clear to turbid water bodies. Substrates and vegetation in the habitats are similar to Goodea atripinnis.
The capture of young indicates, that the reproduction in the Río Panuco basin is from midwinter to late spring (early February to May or June) and may extend throughout autumn (17mm young taken on 23 November),
The species is herbivorous, with similar dentition and gut - length ratio as Goodea atripinnis.
Hubbs and Turner gave a colouration-description as follows: "Sides with brown spots and blotches thickly set on a cream background, in holotype and other small adults. Larger adults are almost uniform, deep purplish brown, except on yellowish belly, breast and throat. Young with relatively few (about 30) spots, mostly vertically elongate, scattered over sides. Middorsal dusky stripe rather indistinct; axial band on sides rather well developed in small adults, but very weak in young and in large adults; no distinct stripe on lower edge of caudal peduncle. Vertical fins dark, becoming deep dusky in adults; pectoral pale dusky; pelvic clear, mottled, or uniformly dark."
In 2010, few specimens of the genus Goodea have been found in the Río Metztitlán in the state of Hidalgo, that waters into the Lago Metztitlán. Comparing measures from these five individuals show intermediate results between the two accepted species gracilis and atripinnis, so the final position of this population isn't sure at all. However, following distribution patterns, it should rather belong to Goodea gracilis and is together with the population of Girardinichthys viviparus from the Lago Tecocomulco one of the most eastern distributed populations of Goodeids.