Apareiodon affinis

Darter characine
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Characiformes
Family: Characidae
Genus: Apareiodon
Species: A. affinis
Binomial name
Apareiodon affinis
(Steindachner, 1879)[1]

Apareiodon affinis, the darter characine, is a species of fresh water ray-finned fish native to the Río de la Plata Basin in southern Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina.[2]

Description

The darter characine is a small, fusiform fish growing to a maximum length of 14.3 cm (5.6 in). Like other characids, it has a mouth on the underside of the head with a poorly developed upper lip. There are no dentary teeth and the pectoral fins have a single, unbranched fin-ray which the fish uses to prop itself up on the substrate.[2]

Ecology

The darter characine is an open water fish,[3] and was one of several fish species in a reservoir on the Paraná River to thrive when large submerged macrophytes were removed.[4] The diet consists of diatoms, green algae and the periderm of aquatic vegetation, perhaps removed accidentally while the fish scrapes off the algae.[5]

The karyotype of this fish varies between populations. In the Upper Paraná basin, the sexes have distinct diploid numbers, the males showing 2n = 54 and the females 2n = 55. They have a multifactorial ZW sex-determination system where the female is determined by ZW1W2 and the male by ZZ. In the separate Cuiabá River system, all individuals show 2n = 54.[6] This is a non-migratory species and its reproductive strategy involves external fertilisation and a lack of parental care of eggs or young.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Apareiodon affinis (Steindachner, 1879)". FishBase. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
  2. 1 2 Reis, Roberto E.; Kullander, Sven O.; Ferraris, Carl J. (2003). Check List of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America. EDIPUCRS. p. 46. ISBN 978-85-7430-361-1.
  3. ↑ Martin H. Iriondo; Juan César Paggi; María Julieta Parma (2007). The Middle Paraná River: Limnology of a Subtropical Wetland. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 310. ISBN 978-3-540-70624-3.
  4. ↑ B. Qin; Z. Liu; K. Havens (2007). Eutrophication of Shallow Lakes with Special Reference to Lake Taihu, China. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 278. ISBN 978-1-4020-6158-5.
  5. ↑ Casatti, L.; Mendes, H.F.; Ferreira, K.M. (2003). "Aquatic macrophytes as feeding site for small fishes in the Rosana Reservoir, Paranapanema River, Southeastern Brazil". Brazilian Journal of Biology. 63 (2). doi:10.1590/S1519-69842003000200006.
  6. ↑ de Jesus, Célia Maria; Bertollo, Luis Antônio Carlos; Moreira‐Filho, Orlando (1999). "Comparative cytogenetics in Apareiodon affinis (Pisces, Characiformes) and considerations regarding diversification of the group". Genetica. 105 (1): 63–67. doi:10.1023/A:1003592022927.
  7. ↑ Jose Galizia Tundisi; Takako Matsumura Tundisi (2012). Limnology. CRC Press. p. 757. ISBN 978-0-203-80395-0.
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