''Paretroplus polyactis'' is a
vulnerable species of
cichlid found widely in fresh and
brackish
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estu ...
water in coastal regions and associated river basins in eastern
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
.
[Sparks, J. S. (2008). ''Phylogeny of the Cichlid Subfamily Etroplinae and Taxonomic Revision of the Malagasy Cichlid Genus Paretroplus (Teleostei: Cichlidae).'' Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History Number 314 :1-151] It is the only ''
Paretroplus
''Paretroplus'' is a genus of fishes in the cichlid family, all of which are endemic to lakes and rivers of Madagascar. The vast majority are threatened and restricted to the northwestern part of the island.Sparks, J. S. (2008). ''Phylogeny of t ...
'' found in the southern half of Madagascar,
[ and one of only two found in eastern drainages (the other is the far more restricted '' P. loisellei'').][Sparks, J. S. and Schelly, R. C. (2011). ''A new species of Paretroplus (Teleostei: Cichlidae: Etroplinae) from northeastern Madagascar, with a phylogeny and revised diagnosis for the P. damii clade.'' Zootaxa 2768: 55–68.] ''P. polyactis'' is threatened by habitat loss
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
and overfishing. This relatively deep-bodied ''Paretroplus'' reaches in length.[Guinane, S. (2000). ]
The Madagascan Cichlid Genus Paretroplus (Bleeker, 1865).
' Accessed 15 July 2011 It shares a large part of its range with a cichlid from another genus, '' Ptychochromis grandidieri''.[
]
References
polyactis
Freshwater fish of Madagascar
Fish described in 1878
Taxa named by Pieter Bleeker
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
{{Cichlidae-stub