[Cyprinodontiformes] FW: Gambusia - Punctata vs. Rhizophorae

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-----Mensagem original-----
De: www.viviparos.com
Enviada: domingo, 8 de Janeiro de 2012 23:51
Para: T.Crane
Cc: Don Kenwood
Assunto: RE: Gambusia - Punctata vs. Rhizophorae

Hello Tom,

I am very pleased to meet you this way.
Unfortunately no one around me is keeping Gambusia rhizophorae right now, so it's
impossible to send you some pictures of mine.
Nonetheless I have a few good pictures to recommend on the Internet:

http://www.poecilia.nl/Fotoarchief/fotos1/images/Gambusia%20rhizophorae.jpg
http://gambusia.zo.ncsu.edu/florida/rhizophorae-m.jpg
http://gambusia.zo.ncsu.edu/florida/rhizophorae-f.jpg
http://gambusia.zo.ncsu.edu/florida/rhizowithpuffer.jpg

As regard Gambusia puncticulata, there are not as many good quality images.
Please send me some photos of your fish in order to try a speculative naming of your
Cuban Gambusia species if I can.
In Portugal we had some uncertainties on the correct identification of the Gambusia
species kept by me and revealed on the photo you have point out. Our guesses were
Gambusia yucatana or Gambusia cf puncticulata.
Thanks to a few pictures sent by me to Prof. Brian Langerhans
(http://gambusia.zo.ncsu.edu/people.html), back in 2006, finally we get a hint.
Even so, this wasn't maybe the perfect mach, because by that time the species was
regrettably lost here and I had no fish preserved in alcohol to send by mail, in
order to try a positive and perfect conclusion. On the other hand, the original
collection location was unknown and there was no way to get material for genetic
sampling neither a picture of the gonopodium tip with the needed magnification and
quality.
To determine the general geographic region where the first fish of that lineage were
collected it would be necessary to try an Mitochondrial DNA ( mtDNA ) analysis, as
Prof. Brian Langerhans itself could only conjecture around a dozen chances of
relating this fish of mine with other Gambusia species when deducting only through my
pictures.
If you want a positive identification of your fish be so kind and try furthermore
other Gambusia specialists.
Anyway, I'll place this message content on our mailing list and also reveal this
exchange of ideas to Don Kenwood, an illustrious Gambusia keeper friend of mine who
can assist you certainly a lot better than I. 
Keep in touch and have a very good new year of 2012.

Best regards

Miguel Andrade 

________________________________________
De: T.Crane 
Enviada: sexta-feira, 6 de Janeiro de 2012 15:37
Para: viviparos.com
Assunto: Gambusia - Punctata vs. Rhizophorae

Miguel,
 
Hope this gets to you.
 
My name is Tom Crane and I am the species maintenance guy for the American Livebearer
Association.
 
I came across your great picture below on the web. I have both of what I am told are
punctata and rhizophorae from Cuba. They look virtually the same to me and I want to
be sure they are what they are said to be. Do you by any chance have a rhizophorae
picture and/or can you tell me how to tell one from the other visually?
 
Tom