Pretty Jewel cichlids

[Louie]

Where did you catch those? PM me with answer! Thank you!

They are all over S.Florida in canals however by Tamiami trail heading for Glades in road side "ponds" ditches fed with canal water there are the red/green morphs of jewels and that is what those are (I am no cichlid expert so could be wrong).

Around my immediate area they are only red and not nearly as big.



They are starting to spawn now as the colors were way brighter today than 2 weeks ago and in ditches they hit any bait right away while in canals they seem reluctant.

Use hooks with no barbs as you dont need barbs for them they grab hook and run with it.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

Nice catches. Ive seen MFK member Midnight catch some Jewels before too. I cant believe people release these fish in the wild here.

 

[Louie]

Nice catches. Ive seen MFK member Midnight catch some Jewels before too. I cant believe people release these fish in the wild here.

Well, they are way established by now . All the cichlids IMO that are wild look great except Oscars which look like mud and convict cichlids which are the drabbest convicts you could fathom.

Midnight should be a guide lol. He knows all the spots from Cichlids to Plecos and everything else.

Another guy who comes here cichlids knows hots spots to.

 

[Bottomfeeder]

^^What is THAT?
not an Oscar, right?

 

[Louie]

^^What is THAT?
not an Oscar, right?

Its a TYPICAL wild oscar few generations removed from the pet store.
The areas where you have old established breeding oscars have this type oscar.

They have no color at all compared to pet store oscars only a hint of the Oscar fin red dot.

An old guy I met while fishing who has lived here decades told me this.

All the wild cichlids have unreal colors esp breeding season but oscars and convicts are as drab as you can fathom.

 

[likestofish]

^^What is THAT?
not an Oscar, right?

Think about it if a oscar kepts its bright reds or orangtes it would not be able to blend in so it could hunt and hide. Jaguars have mottled patern that breaks up their body shape and the purplish color that they get is better for camo.

 

[Louie]

Think about it if a oscar kepts its bright reds or orangtes it would not be able to blend in so it could hunt and hide. Jaguars have mottled patern that breaks up their body shape and the purplish color that they get is better for camo.

Thats true but didnt figure it out till you said it.

They are found in mud canal,lake bottoms they are not found by weeds,etc like the brighter type cichlids . Didnt think of it till your post.

 

[Robbwilder]

Mayans were starting to hit up in broward today. First Catch this year of one. Couple small bass and panfish. Way to windy though. A few more weeks and it will be great fishing weather.

Caught one silver speckled black catfish on a GULP nightcrawler.

 

[Louie]

Mayans were starting to hit up in broward today. First Catch this year of one. Couple small bass and panfish. Way to windy though. A few more weeks and it will be great fishing weather.

Caught one silver speckled black catfish on a GULP nightcrawler.

Yes its been real windy and it was a cold winter by Miami standards. Its nice now with no wind and mid to high 80s .
Not to mention rain fall has been very low.

I was just talking to guy from Broward yesterday who caught a few salivina cichlids on wax worms 2 days ago.

Have you ever caught any yourself there?

 

[Louie]

waht bait? did you keep any?

I should have kept some . At least sent them to folks on MFK as I have in the past because went there last weekend and the "pond" was about 3 inches deep with every jewel cichlid gone.

It has been real dry and the side of the road ditches,ponds which are fed by canals which have dropped in depth are dry or very low . There are other ponds with other jewels but not as big not as pretty .

Racoon and bird tracks all over the mud told the story.