# Brichardi or Pulcher?



## Dieselfool (Aug 11, 2010)

Hi ya. I'm new to this site. Just got back into aquariums after 25yrs. Seems I've forgotten more about Cichlids than I remembered. Picked up this little guy this week. He was tagged as a Daffodil Brichardi. When I posted a pic of him on another site, somebody commented on my "Pulcher". Can anyone explain the difference ? Thx.


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## SinisterKisses (Feb 24, 2004)

Pulcher. The easiest way to tell, is by checking the black marks on the gill plate. A pulcher will have what looks like "((", while a brichardi will have what looks like a "T" layed on it's side.


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## J.B. (Jul 14, 2007)

Your new charge is a Neolamprologus pulcher var. 'daffodil' So, the label was kind of correct, but mostly wrong, in my mind. Reason being, 'daffodil' and 'brichardi' don't go together.

The terms pulcher and brichardi identify distinct species of the Neolamprologus genus, while 'daffodil' is a geographical variant, only associated with N. pulcher. The difference between the two can be determined by examining the gill plate markings as explained by SinisterKisses.

Beautiful fish BTW, I just recently picked up a colony of N. brichardi myself. :thumb:


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## 24Tropheus (Jun 21, 2006)

Yep pulcher. If you still like using this way of differentiating them.
Interesting if pulcher and brichardi are just two species or a species complex.
These fish are almost identical in appearance and never found occurring together in the wild, but rather in close vicinity to each other. However color patterning and location are not the only determination of a species, today there is also DNA sequencing.
A recent (well 2007) study published in the journal
Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Volume 45, Issue 2, November 2007, Pages 706-715 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_o ... 15c39b3de6 (sorry about the ridiculously long link) has suggested that both types of markings evolved more than once in different locations. Making them a species complex or a single species.
Untill it is resolved just how many species or sub species there are most I think still use the names pulcher and brichardi although knowing further work should bring more names/descriptions.

Till then best to keep not just pulcher and brichardi in separate tanks but also the many colour forms of each separate, as they all cross easily.

I keep my pulcher variant ('daffodil') in my home tanks and my brichardi variant at the school I work at. Helps keep the fry separate. :wink:

All the best James


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## Dieselfool (Aug 11, 2010)

Thanks for the help guys.


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