There
is no other genus of larger cichlids from South America that is so
poorly understood as the oscars (Astronotus). Currently only two species
are widely accepted, namely A. ocellatus and A. crassipinnis. However,
there do exist a lot of more species as can be easily observed with the
bare eye. We were able in recent times to import repeatedly one of them,
A. zebra. (see
http://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/groe-zebra-oskar-wildfnge-eingetroffen_de_1607.html)
Finally,
after quite a long time, we were able to import oscars from Paraguay
(Rio Paraguay, near Asuncion). Most probably the specimens belong to the
species A. crassipinnis. However, current knowledge allows only to name
specimens from the Rio Guaporé to be named A. crassipinnis without any
doubts (see http://www2.nrm.se/ve/pisces/acara/as_crass.shtml). So we
name our fish A. cf. crassipinnis. The “cf.” stands for the Latin word
“conferre”, which means “(to) compare (with)”.
Despite
a great individual variabilty in respect of pattern the very attractive
animals nevertheless show some unique features. First, the basic colour
of the body is very dark, almost black. Second, there are no ocellated
spots in the region of the dorsal fin, which are so characteristic for
A. ocellatus.
Astronotus
crassipinnis seems to stay a bot smaller than A. ocellatus. The maximum
length reported for A. crassipinnis is 24 cm standard length (without
the tail fin). Our specimens are currently 14-18 cm long (incl. the tail
fin). Hopefully the quite few (only 7 specimens) form pairs that breed.
For sure this oscar is a great enrichment for the aquarium hobby!
For our customers: the animals have code 632307 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
