Photograph taken Sep 16th, 2018 at Burgers' Zoo, in the new mangrove's manatee tank. I did some search on cichlids species kept at Burgers on ZTL and in the gallery and this looks the most like Vieja synspila but I'm not sure. Can anyone help me?
I think you are correct and this is a quetzal cichlid, formerly named Cichlasoma synspilum, but now Vieja melanura. I think it has had more names in the past 15 years than many species have had since before 1900.
@gentle lemur Thank you for your help. And yeah I just did a little bit of research and it's really hard to find which one is the correct/current one, but if I understand things well V. melanura is the currently correct scientific name?
Oh, I had been keeping my photos separatedly as Vieja melanura and Vieja synspila (after recently accepting change Paratheraps melanurus to Vieja melanura). Are they really complete synonyms (nomenclatural lumping) or is because two different taxa were merged into a single species (taxonomic lumping)?
@Kakapo According to Fishbase, Gunther originally named this species as Heros melanurus in 1862. Then Steindachner separately described it as Heros melanopogon in 1864, and Hubbs called it Cichlasoma synspilum in 1935. For good measure, Fowler also described it as Cichlaurus hicklingi in 1956. I don't know how all these names came about: there may be some geographical variation, but I think it's more likely that young specimens were described separately, as they don't look much like fully mature adults.
I think that he species became common it the aquarium trade about 25 years ago as Cichlasoma synspilum. Then several ichthyologists started to revise the genus Cichlasoma, and the fish was placed in both Vieja and Paraneetroplus. I don't know who eventually sorted things out, but it seems that the dust has settled and it really is Vieja melanura (although it will probably take years for all those synonyms to disappear).
