Alcolapia alcalica

Alcolapia alcalica, the common Natron tilapia[2] or soda cichlid,[3] is an endangered species of fish in the family Cichlidae.[1] It is endemic to the hypersaline, warm Lake Natron, its drainage and the Shombole Swamps in Kenya and Tanzania.[1] This species typically has an essentially terminal (straight) mouth, but a morph with an upturned mouth is found locally in eastern Lake Natron, where it co-occurs with the normal morph. A. latilabris and A. ndalalani, the two other species in Lake Natron, both have a clearly downturned mouth.[4] Territorial males of A. alcalica have extensive blue-white spotting, and their underparts and throat can be yellow or white. Females and non-territorial males are overall sandy in colour.[5] A. alcalica reaches up to 11.6 cm (4.6 in) in total length.[2]

Alcolapia alcalica
Territorial male
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cichliformes
Family: Cichlidae
Genus: Alcolapia
Species:
A. alcalica
Binomial name
Alcolapia alcalica
(Hilgendorf, 1905)
Synonyms
  • Tilapia alcalica Hilgendorf, 1905
  • Oreochromis alcalicus (Hilgendorf, 1905)

References
  1. Bayona, J.D.R. (2006). "Alcolapia alcalicus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2006: e.T60452A12368336. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2006.RLTS.T60452A12368336.en.
  2. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2018). "Alcolapia alcalica" in FishBase. October 2018 version.
  3. "Alcolapia alcalica (HILGENDORF, 1905) Soda Cichlid". SeriouslyFish. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  4. Ford, A.G.P.; L. Ruber; J. Newton; K.K. Dasmahapatra; J.D. Balarin; K. Bruun; J.J. Day (2016). "Niche divergence facilitated by fine-scale ecological partitioning in a recent cichlid fish adaptive radiation". Evolution. 70 (12): 2718–2735. doi:10.1111/evo.13072.
  5. Genner, M.J.; G.F. Turner; B.P. Ngatunga (2018). "A Guide to Tilapia Fishes of Tanzania" (PDF). Retrieved 6 November 2019.


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