Allotoca   dugesi

BEAN, 1888

Family :- Goodeidae Jordan 1923

Range:-

        Initially I was lead to believe that the range of this species was extremely limited to just one or two locations. However over the past 6 years I have found it in far more numerous locations throughout the Mexican state of Michoacan in fact they seemed to occur in most small rivers and ponds. From Rivers and streams feeding down into Lake Patzcuaro down to the opposite side of Morelia. And so for the moment at least it would seem to be relatively safe.

Description

        Pictured above is a female of the species. Her general appearance is representative of the females.The silver throat extending into the belly can at time in certain lights and population show a slight golden oversheen.Her flanks have this blue iridescence that deepen in color towards the anal region. This to can vary but tends to become more prominent in heavily gravid females the blue becoming more greenish the near you get to the caudal peduncle. The black blotches on here body are far more erratic and can be of any size but generally being larger the nearer you come to her anal.Generally speaking her dorsal and caudal fins are set well back and do not have much color although in 1995/96 I did bring back a solitary female that was different. But more about that latter.

        The males will grow to  between 4cm and  5,5 cm approx, while the full grown females  can go to 8cm. The males differ greatly in shape and color from the female. Their body is like a sawn off version of it's mates and the dorsal fin is a little larger showing a slight dark crescent near the outer edge.this shows more in younger specimens. Their pelvic fins can sometimes be a leaf green color while the others have either none or display a slight bronze or5  gold hue. The background coloration above the lateral line of the body is basically a dirty leaf green with bronze or silver oversheens. However in some populations the green can show bright highlights. Below the lateral can vary from bronze to burnished gold, and in some populations is very striking and appear to radiate over the whole body..

( Left )             On the left is the site of the spring at Rancho El Molino which drains down in the general direction of Lake Patzcuaro which is just a few miles away. Every day this particular pool is launderette to the villagers for many miles around, and there is frequently a queue to get in here hence the reason that you rarely find fish right hear. However in the pool behind the white hut you can see a line of rushes. These are the actual spring pools and do hold fish stocks. But it is fenced off private property and you should only enter with the permission of the owners at the ranch house. However you can find all the fish in the field down stream to the left of this.  See Below

(Right)Now we are looking down behind the white hut to the field behind it and here there is an over spill stream running away down the back of the ranch and here you can find a number of Goodied species in excellent condition. They are :- Goodea attripinnis, Skiffia lermae, Allotoca diazi and Allotoca dugesi.            Above I referred to an A dugesi female who's fins were different from the norm. Well she came from this site and her fins were almost totally black. Fortunately she was still gravid when I got her home and almost all the fry born also had the feature and so for a few years we had a new variant in the hobby. But like all the A dugesi in the hobby so far I believe that they eventually died out.  No one to my knowledge has really found out why, but I suspect that there requirement for constantly clean water and

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