{"id":927,"date":"2019-06-28T17:39:02","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T17:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/?p=927"},"modified":"2022-05-16T06:32:13","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T06:32:13","slug":"xiphophorus-couchianus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/2019\/06\/28\/xiphophorus-couchianus\/","title":{"rendered":"Xiphophorus couchianus (Girard C. 1859)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Etymology:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xiphophorus:<\/em> Greek, xiphos = sword + Greek, pherein =\nto carry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

couchianus\n<\/em>after Lieutenant D.N. Couch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First\ndescription:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girard C. 1859<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ichthyological notices, 41 – 59.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia.\nNo.11: 113 – 122.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synonyms:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limia couchianus Girard 1859<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common\nName<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monterrey Platy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Described by Girard in 1859 as Limia\ncouchianus & later placed in Xiphophorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A female was used as a holotype measuring\n41 mm. This was collected in the San Rio Juan in the area of Cadarecta &\nMonterrey, Nuevo Le\u00f3n State, Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xiphophorus couchianus <\/em>is one of the\nthree northern platys that belong to the Rio Grande\nplaty subset\nconsisting of consisting of X. couchianus, X. gordoni<\/em> and X.\nmeyeri.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Type\nLocality:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rio San Juan, Cadarecta and Monterrey, Nuevo\nLe\u00f3n State, Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is some doubt as to the validity of\nthis type location as there is a town named Cadereyta 35Km east of Monterrey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distribution:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Extinct in the wild<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Populations:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huasteca\nCanyon (Nuevo Le\u00f3n State, Mexico)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Habitat:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headwater\nstreams, spring pools & rarely in sluggish flowing streams & ditches.\nThe base is mostly clay & mud with a few areas of rock. Aquatic plants are\nquite dense with marginal plants near the banks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Size:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Males: 30 mm, females: 40 mm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colour\/Pattern\nVariability:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upper part of the body is dark brown,\nthe scales have darker edging to give a net like appearance. The lower part of\nthe body is off white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dorsal and anal fins have several dark\ncrescents on them. All other fins are clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behaviour:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shy species and secretive species that\nlike plenty of plant cover to hide in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Husbandry:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A well planted aquarium with a temperature\nof 24\u00b0C and regular small water changes, although fairly tolerant of water\nconditions a sudden change in pH will kill this sp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nspecies is reported as short lived and only expected to reach 12 months of age.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breeding\nNotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Older females are known to produce weak\nyoung which have a high mortality rate. Brood sizes are reported at an average\nof 20 but 40 has been recorded in young adult females.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General remarks:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\noriginal populations from the Huasteca Canyon died out in 1964 when the springs\ndried out due to excessive water pumping lowering the water table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 A Xiphophorus species was discovered at Apodaca\n20km northeast of the centre of Monterrey which was believed to be an\nundescribed sp. possibly a spotted form of X.\ncouchianus<\/em> (markings reminiscent of X.\nmeyeri<\/em>) or even a new species. Unfortunately this species has also died out\nand as the type specimens of X.\ncouchianus<\/em> cannot be found comparisons between the two species cannot be\nmade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Genus Xiphophorus in Mexico and Central America – <\/strong> Klaus D. Kallman and Steven Kazianis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Platies and swordtails – Derek and Pat Lambert<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photograph courtesy of Dave Macallister<\/strong> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Etymology: Xiphophorus: Greek, xiphos = sword + Greek, pherein = to carry couchianus after Lieutenant D.N. Couch. First description: Girard C. 1859 Ichthyological notices, 41 – 59. Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia. No.11: 113 –...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3907,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927\/revisions\/3907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishlivebearerassociation.co.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}