Very Interesting Topic:Wild Caught spring firemouth upper florida!

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TigerTalon1

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 7, 2019
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So I have a secret spot where I found a honey hole of wild cichlid species, it was almost magical when I found it. A spring which never goes below 70 degrees. Somehow these Firemouth were able to repopulate in this little pond, along with some tilapia looking fish, and other unidentified cichlids. I have only been successful in catch 1 large male firemouth. I have since put him in my 30 gallon long with some barbs and plants. I am going to try to buy a female fire mouth so that i can have a breeding pair. Its interesting that these firemouth were able to survive for lord knows how long! The tilapia looking fish are white with black markings and they are bigger than the firemouth about 10 or so inches. The other unidentified cichlids are brownish with bright orange tips on the fins about 8 inches at the biggest. Anybody know what they could be? By the way the firemouth that are in this sping have extremely vivid colors with full red going down from the chin to the base of the tail. The trailers of the firemouths are extremely long on both the dorsal fins and tailfin with the tail fin being outlined by black with a flash of red which fades into a yellow. I will get pics once his eyes clear up. I think hes in shock right now because of the amount of change in his environment. Tell me what you guys think overall about this and help me identify those unknown cichlids.
 
The white Tilapia sounds interesting any pics? The brownish fish with orange fins sounds likes urothalpmus, I normally go down to fl every year to collect and fish, been doing it for years and still love it...
 
I live in SW Fl and we have tons of African jewel cichlids.
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The white Tilapia sounds interesting any pics? The brownish fish with orange fins sounds likes urothalpmus, I normally go down to fl every year to collect and fish, been doing it for years and still love it...

The winter where I live gets down to 40 degrees in florida and the firemouth are able to survive in that spring. I don't have any pics of the tilapia looking fish as they are difficult to catch but next time I go ill take a close up pic.
 
Definitely post some pics

I definitely will once he clears up a little bit he’s still a bit shocked probably going to be a week or so before he starts looking better. He’s active and swimming so that’s good eyes are still foggy though.
 
I definitely will once he clears up a little bit he’s still a bit shocked probably going to be a week or so before he starts looking better. He’s active and swimming so that’s good eyes are still foggy though.
What do you mean by foggy eyes. You think he may be developing popeye?
 
What do you mean by foggy eyes. You think he may be developing popeye?

No I don’t believe it’s popeye. I honestly believe that these fish have been here reproducing for a really long time since there are all different sizes and I think that the foggy eyes are due to it being in the spring in the cold temperatures, I don’t know though because he has loose stringy stuff on his dorsal and on his bottom fin, it may have something to do with the slime coat being affected by the unnatural environment that the fish was in not sure though. When I get home I’ll take pics.
 
Here’s a pic guys! His eyes have begun to clear up and the stringy stuff has gone away a little bit, he looks better than yesterday, as you can see he has a yellow tail which I’ve never seen

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The picture doesn’t do justice the yellow is much brighter than that in real life, you also can’t see the reds and blues he has in his dorsal and bottom fins very well
 
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