There are two accepted species of Biotodoma: B. cupido and B. wavrini. Both differ basically by the position of the lateral blotch, which is positioned above the upper branch of the lateral line in B. cupido and below the upper branch of the lateral line in B. wavrini.
Biotodoma cupido is widely distrubuted in South America and many differently colored populations are known – maybe at least some of them even represent different species. In contrast to that B. wavrini looks very uniformly. That species is distributed in the Orinoco and Rio Negro systems. Most often we obtain B. wavrini from Colombia, but this time the fish originate from Brazil. It is known scientifically that B. wavrini occurs in Brazil; there is even a quite isolated population reported from the Rio Preto da Eva. However, there are no externally observable differences to their Colombian relatives.
Biotodoma wavrini usually attains a maximum size of 8-12 cm and is thus almost a dwarf cichlid. The photographed specimens have a total length (including the caudal fin) of about 8 cm.
For our customers: the fish have code 634224 on our stocklist. Please note that we exclusively supply the wholesale trade. Available in very limited numbers only!
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
