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Firemouth Cichlid
   Thorichthys meeki

Origin: Central America   |   Approx Size: 5-6 inches

   My Experience (summary of my own keeping)

Two male firemouth cichlids resided in my aquarium from the time they were barely an inch long, until they started maturing. From the start, one bullied and completely dominated the other, so much so that this stunted the growth of the victimized fish. The likely cause of the fighting was that both were males without enough space.

The aquarium used to be a forest of plastic plants and the larger, aggressor firemouth cichlid dug a pit in the middle of the tank and gave himself reign over the community. As a resolution to the constant fighting and to give the aquarium a new, better look, the aquarium was remodeled. The plastic plants were replaced by live plants and all that remained of the other set-up is the substrate. The idea was to create more free space while also splitting the aquarium into two feasible territories. At first, this seemed to have worked because the two firemouth cichlids co-existed peacefully... well, what's peaceful for two male firemouth cichlids, anyways. The smaller cichlid would chase the larger one and vise-versa. The smaller cichlid seemed much happier and explored quite a bit, and even tried its own aggressive displays against the large male, although it was often futile.

In the end, the larger cichlid took his reign again, and the smaller cichlid had to be given away to a local pet shop. The next day, I went to that same pet shop and saw the little guy, with scars on his body and tears in his fins from what the larger male did, on sale for 15 dollars... sad.

Besides the territorial displays, firemouth cichlids do not fit the mold of other cichlids their size, which can be too aggressive for a community tank. Firemouth cichlids leave their tankmates alone and commune well with other like-sized fish or smaller schooling fish. A careful balance should be chosen, however, as a fish like this could be easily bullied by more aggressive cichlids. Also, as the territorial displays by my fish have shown, and the brief change in their behavior after the aquarium was remodeled has shown, space is a definite key.

   Basic Behavior (based upon observations, readings and conversations)

Mild cichlids, and good community fish.

   Food Preference (brands and types)

Tetra® TetraMin® Tropical Flakes

   Links

http://www.fishlore.com/profile-firemouthcichlid.htm

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile43.html

http://photobucket.com/images/Firemouth/

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=firemouth+cichlid