Edit Dawkinsia exclamatio

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Name

Scientific name

Dawkinsia exclamatio

Described by

Authority Pethiyagoda & Kottelat, Year 2005

Family

Cyprinidae

Common names

Not recorded

Photograph credits

All 6 credited

Summary

Dawkinsia exclamatio is a cyprinid from the Kallada River in southern Kerala, India, and may be endemic to that river system. Rare in the h…

Size and aquarium

Maximum size

100mm, standard length

Aquarium size

Minimum length 120 cm, Minimum depth 45 cm

Water

Water conditions

Temperature 19–25°C, pH 6–7.5

Hardness

2–10dGH

Conductivity

Not recorded

Behaviour

Temperament

Not recorded

Community suitability

Community-safe

Where it lives

Countries, regions, rivers and lakes

India, Kallada

Writing

Etymology

Dawkinsia: named for Richard Dawkins, for 'his contribution to the public understanding of science and, in particular, of evolutionary science'. exclamatio: in…

Distribution

Type locality is '3 kilometers downstream of Thenmalai Dam, on Thenmalai-Trivandrum Road, Kallada River, Kerala, India', and it may be endemic to the Kallada s…

Habitat

Inhabits various riverine habitat types, and conditions likely to vary depending on time of year with significant increases in water volume, chemistry, and tur…

Aquarium size

An aquarium with base measurements of at least 120 ∗ 45 cm or equivalent should be the smallest considered for long-term care.

Maintenance

Not difficult to keep in a well-maintained set-up, though we recommend aquascaping the tank to resemble a flowing stream or river with a substrate of variably-…

Water conditions

Not written yet

Diet

Probably a foraging omnivore feeding on a variety of worms, insects, crustaceans, plant material, and other organic debris in nature. In the aquarium it's easi…

Behaviour and compatibility

An ideal addition to a peaceful community of riverine species alongside other schooling or shoaling cyprinids plus botiid, cobitid, nemacheilid, and balitorid …

Sexual dimorphism

Adult males develop a more intense colour pattern than females, exhibit noticeable tubercules on the head when in spawning condition, and some individuals deve…

Reproduction

Possibly unrecorded, but recommendations for closely-related species are as follows: Like most small cyprinids Dawkinsia spp. are egg-scattering free spawners …

Notes

D. exclamatio is rare in the aquarium hobby but occasionally shipped as bycatch among shipments of similar-looking species such as D. assimilis. It was formerl…

D. exclamatio is rare in the aquarium hobby but occasionally shipped as bycatch among shipments of similar-looking species such as D. assimilis.

It was formerly included in the genus Puntius and Puntius filamentosus 'group' of related species which also contained P. arulius, P. assimilis, P. exclamatio, P. filamentosus, P. rohani, P. rubrotinctus, P. singhala, P. srilankensis and P. tambraparniei, but all of these were moved to the new genus Dawkinsia by Pethiyagoda et al. (2012).

Dawkinsia species are defined by the following combination of characters: adult size normally 80 – 120 mm3.1 – 5 in SL; rostral barbels absent; maxillary barbels present or absent; last unbranched dorsal-fin ray smooth; 4 unbranched and 8 branched dorsal-fin rays; 3 unbranched and 5 branched anal-fin rays; lateral line complete, with 18-22 scales on body; gill rakers simple, acuminate (not branched or laminate); no antrorse predorsal spinous ray; free uroneural present; 4-5 supraneurals; 15 precaudal and 14-17 caudal vertebrae; post-epiphysial fontanelle absent; infraorbital 3 slender, not overlapping preoperculum; juvenile (< 50 mm2.0 in SL) colour pattern consisting of three black bars on body, retained in adults of some species; a black, horizontally elongate blotch on the caudal peduncle in adults.

D. exclamatio is told apart from all other Dawkinsia spp. by the following suite of characters: presence of two black blotches on each flank, one 2-3 scales wide commencing on and above lateral line scales 6 and 7, the other about 1½ scales high commencing on lateral line slightly anterior to or above anal-fin origin, on about lateral line scale 13 and extending along the caudal peduncle to the caudal-fin base; caudal peduncle blotch horizontally-elongate and tear-drop shaped.

It's the only member of the group to possess two such blotches, all others having one or three.

There is a case, however, to suggest that D. exclamatio is not actually a distinct taxon but rather a natural hybrid between D. assimilis and a D. arulius-like fish (possibly D. rubrotinctus) which occur together at its type locality in the Kallada River at Thenmalai.

The potential of hybridisation is evidenced by the somewhat intermediate colour pattern in that it possesses a (roughly) W-shaped mid-lateral blotch, a feature shared with D. rubrotinctus, but also a laterally-elongated blotch on the caudal peduncle as in some other congeners, a unique combination within the assemblage.

D. exclamatio should also have a sub-terminal mouth and lack dorsal-fin filaments but some specimens possess a terminal mouth and/or possess dorsal filaments, and one specimen also had black caudal-fin tips as typically seen in D. filamentosa, whereas the description states that the fin tips are only dusky and lack distinctive markings.

Forms apparently intermediate between D. filamentosa and D. tambraparniei have also been collected where the two occur together in the Thamirabarani River, Tamil Nadu.

While no conclusions were reached because DNA testing was not performed, hybridisation between D. filamentosa and D. arulius in that river had previously been speculated and is a phenomenon known to be more common in the family Cyprinidae than in any other group of fishes, meaning future research may yield interesting results.

The genus Puntius was for a number of years viewed as a polyphyletic catch-all containing over 100 species of small to mid-sized cyprinid until Pethiyagoda et al. (2012) published a partial review covering South Asian members.

The majority of sub-Himalayan Puntius species were reclassified and new genera Dawkinsia, Dravidia, and Pethia erected to accomodate some of them, with the remainder either retained in Puntius or moved to the existing Systomus assemblage, though the definition of the latter was altered meaning some Southeast Asian species formerly placed there are no longer members.

It subsequently became clear that the name Dravidia was preoccupied by a genus of flesh fly, therefore the replacement name Haludaria was made available by Pethiyagoda (2013).

No species from Indochina, China, or Indonesia were included in the study meaning a significant number of former Puntius are currently classed as incertae sedis, i.e., of uncertain taxonomic placement, and this also applies to a number of South Asian species of unresolved status.

They’re perhaps best referred to as ‘Puntius‘ for the time being whereby the genus name is surrounded by quotation marks to denote its questionable usage, and that is the convention used here on SF at the moment.

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References

7 on this profile

Name

Scientific name

Described by

Family

Common names

Photograph credits

Summary

Size and aquarium

Maximum size

Aquarium size

Water

Water conditions

Hardness

Conductivity

Behaviour

Temperament

Social needs

Community suitability

Where it lives

Countries, regions, rivers and lakes

Writing

Etymology

Distribution

Habitat

Aquarium size

Maintenance

Water conditions

Diet

Behaviour and compatibility

Sexual dimorphism

Reproduction

Notes

References

References