Nomenclature question
Hello -
For many decades, I have always kept Red Devil's and was familiar with the scientific names. In fact, back in the mid to early 80's, I had several questions answered by Aquarium Fish Magazine regarding the possibility of breeding my large male. In each of these correspondences, the scientific name was always printed with the response, in fact one of the questions I posed dealt with a particular name change which occurred back then.
When I first started rearing Red Devils, the scientific name was Heros labius or Heros labiatus. Several years later, they started changing the name from Heros to Cichlidae labius and/or Cichlasoma labiatus. Today, I have noted that they are also using the name Amphilophus labiatus. 
I remember that the original name change from Heros to Cichlidae was an effort to properly show the familial relations as well as reduce the number of animals that had multiple names as a result of different scientist describing the same species.
Thus, what is the current/proper name of the Red Devil? Furthermore, what have all of the different versions been and why are they constantly revising the name?
Thanks.
Art
<<Hello Art,
The name Amphilophus is current and should be final. The genus Cichlasoma was an umbrella for all cichlids from Central America until things got sorted out. Today it has been split into a whole bunch of new genera according to morphological characteristics, so the fish eaters for example are Parapetenia (i.e. friedrichstahli), the rheophile cichlids are Tomocichla (i.e. tuba), the group around the red devil are now Amphilophus. There are still some fish that have not been placed in any of the groups including the salvini and the Jack Dempsey (C. octofasciatum). The genus Heros is now reserved for the fish we know as the Severum (now Heros severus), and includes around a half dozen species. To check on current names you can go to http://www.fishbase.org - this site is pretty current with what is happening in nomenclature. Hope this helps, Oliver >>