I was glad that book donation I did sold for as high as it did...!
Juan was a HUGE pleasure to meet and pick his brain about Mexican Cichlids.
I FINALLY found out what cichlid pair I saw in a lake/lagoon (whatever you call them) on a Mayan Reservation near the Coba ruins. I saw them while I was canoing after we went hiking, spelunking (if you want to call it that LOL) into a cenote (and getting freaked out because blind fish kept bumping into us), and climbing pyramids and ruins and ball courts at Coba....
I clearly remembered that the lake was shallow, probably 4 ft at it's deepest (that I could tell/saw), crystal clear water, few aquatic plants, and the fish were clearly a pair (swimming together close together, adult size (about 3-4.5" I'd estimate)), had VERY little color and had what looked like three large spots on their sides.
When Juan showed a picture of Cryptoheros spiluris on the screen I knew that's what it was, even more so when I asked Juan if they can be found in Quintana Roo (Mexican state on the Yucatana Peninsula), specifically near the ruin city of Coba on a Mayan/Indigenous Reservation. (BARELY ruins...I liked it a lot more than Chichen Itza (well, Chichen Itza has a much better main pyramid, but Coba is bigger, and really has the lost city in a jungle feel to it with all the growth and trees growing on the buildings, etc...plus you can climb them, which you can't do at Chichen Itza).
I wasn't sure if thought I was saying Coba or Coban (two different ruins sites), but once I mentioned a reservation he knew what I was talking about and that Cryptoheros spiluris can be found in that region.
At first I was thinking maybe Thorichthys helleri, but after seeing the photo of the Cryptoheros spiluris Juan showed on the slideshow that had to of been the fish I saw...
It was interesting to know that a lot of new world cichlids build faux nest sites... I knew some Lake Tanganyikan cichlids will use old nest sites as their own, and I knew Boulengerochromis microlepis build multiple nest sites and move fry around. Didn't know new world fish did any of that as well...
