Etroplus

Etroplus
Orange chromide, Etroplus maculatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Cichlidae
Subfamily:	Etroplinae
Genus:	Etroplus Cuvier in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1830
Species
Etroplus canarensis Etroplus maculatus Etroplus suratensis

Etroplus is a small genus of cichlids with only three species. They are found in southern India and Sri Lanka.

Their closest living relatives are Paretroplus from Madagascar. These two lineages must have separated during the Mesozoic already, as Madagascar and the Indian Plate had separated by the end of the Cretaceous (Sparks 2004).

References

• "Etroplus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. 6 June. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
• Sparks, John S. (2004): Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the Malagasy and South Asian cichlids (Teleostei: Perciformes: Cichlidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 30(3): 599–614. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00225-2 (HTML abstract)