Only two species of Astronotus are recognized at present. They are large food fishes occurring in the tropical rivers of South America.
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Sven O
Kullander
Astronotus crassipinnis (Heckel)
Synonymy
Acara crassipinnis Heckel, 1840.
Annln wien. Mus.
Natges. 2, p. 357 (...Rio-Paraguay... in Buchten... bei Villa
Maria und Caiçara...Rio-Guaporè bei Matogrosso, im
Rio-negro und im Rio-branco).
Diagnosis
Kullander (1986) distinguished
A. crassipinnis from
A. ocellatus on colour pattern and
meristics.
Astronotus crassipinnis never shows ocellated
spots along the base of the dorsal fin, which characterise
western Amazonian
A. ocellatus. The bar pattern is
variable in both species, but
A. crassipinnis is overall
darker, and recognised in particular by having the anteriormost
light vertical bar more anterior than in
A. ocellatus
(well in advance of the tip of the pectoral fin) and two more or
less well-separated dark vertical bars in the position of the
first light bar in
A. ocellatus.
Astronotus
crassipinnis has modally D. XIII.21-22 in contrast to
A.
ocellatus which has modally XIII.20 and never 22 rays and
nearly never 12 spines. Scale counts show considerable overlap,
with a variation of 35-40 in
A. crassipinnis and 33-39,
mode 35 in
A. ocellatus. (From Kullander, 1986.)
As explained by Kullander (1986), only two syntypes of A.
crassipinnis have been located, both from the Guaporé.
Other material was reported from the Rio Negro and Rio Branco and
likely represents A. ocellatus or some undescribed
species. Until a lectotype designation, recommending a Guaporean
specimen, use of A. crassipinnis for the Paraguayan and
Bolivian Amazonian species of Astronotus is
provisional.
Syntypes
NMW 24261. 1, 208 mm SL. 'Rio Guapore'. No date. J.
Natterer.
NMW 58776. 1, 185.9 mm SL 'Rio Guapore'. No date. J. Natterer.
Etymology
crassipinnis is a Latin adjective formed from the Latin
adjective
crassus, -a, -um, fat, and
pinna, fin.
Geographical distribution
Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru: in the upper Paraguay and the
Bolivian Amazon including the Guaporé, Mamoré and
Madre de Dios.
Natural history
No information available.
Local names
Not recorded.
References
HECKEL, J. 1840. Johann Natterer's neue
Flussfische Brasilien's nach den Beobachtungen und Mittheilungen
des Entdeckers beschrieben. (Erste Abtheilung, die Labroiden.)
Annln wien. Mus. Natges. 2: 327-470.
KULLANDER, S.O. 1981. Cichlid fishes from the La Plata basin.
Part I. Collections from Paraguay in the Muséum d'Histoire
naturelle de Genève. Revue suisse Zool. 88: 675-692.
KULLANDER, S.O. 1986. Cichlid fishes of the Amazon River drainage
of Peru. Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, 431
pp.