Question?

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fishon91

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 23, 2010
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@ the Chum Bucket
I don't know a whole lot about Cichlids so maybe you guys can answer this for me. I live in Miami and there's many lakes around my house. I occasionally go fishing at a few of the one's nearby and I have noticed that a few in particular house what seem to be Jewel Cichlids. Like I said, Idk much about them but I am about 99.9% positive that they are Jewel Cichlids. Most of them are small for the most part and are always in groups near the shore. They actually have pretty nice color patterns to them, some turning into a bright red. Idk if that's caused by behavior or gender. A friend of mine took a pair home and they seemed to be very territorial and quickly dominated the small tank they were in. Very aggressive from what I saw as well. My question is, am I correct on the species of Cichlid? Are they native or common in these parts? Please someone give me some info. I'm very interested in knowing more about them. I actually like them. They have neat small specks of blue on the sides, which I'm guessing gives them the name "jewel". Thanks in advance :D
 
Jewel cichlids are endemic to West Africa, so I doubt that is what you are seeing. My best bet would be they are some sort of Sunfish. A lot of people do keep Native species in their home Aquaria, Sunfish being one of them as they are a beautiful family of fish and are often over looked due to the fact they are not exotic like the more popular species kept within the hobby. However, there are several laws regarding the collecting of Native fish so be sure to look into that before you make any decisions to bring any home. If you could post a picture of them, I am sure me or at least someone on here could help you out.
 
Thank you for the input. I did however look up Sunfish and they look nothing like it. I can't get you a picture of the fish right now but I got this off of google under the search "jewel cichlid" and that's the exact same fish, at least in appearance, that I'm seeing at the lake. It's identical to what I'm seeing there, some of them being a light greenish-brownish color while a few others being that exact bright red.

jewel-cichlid.jpg


Once again, Idk anything about them but thats what I'm seeing, and since you're telling me that they're native to Africa, how is it possible that that's what I'm seeing? Please enlighten me as now I'm really intrigued by this.
 
fishon91;4467222; said:
Thank you for the input. I did however look up Sunfish and they look nothing like it. I can't get you a picture of the fish right now but I got this off of google under the search "jewel cichlid" and that's the exact same fish, at least in appearance, that I'm seeing at the lake. It's identical to what I'm seeing there, some of them being a light greenish-brownish color while a few others being that exact bright red.

jewel-cichlid.jpg


Once again, Idk anything about them but thats what I'm seeing, and since you're telling me that they're native to Africa, how is it possible that that's what I'm seeing? Please enlighten me as now I'm really intrigued by this.
Click to expand...

Get some pics next time!!! :D
 
These are African cichlids. There are tons of cichlids loose in the rivers and lakes of Florida, particularly south Florida. This occurs for a few different reasons -- tropicals from the big fish farms get into the natural waterways by flooding and such, or aquarium owners get tired of their fish and release them. Our climate is usually warm enough here that these fish can live and breed year-round, so they don't die off in the winter like they would in northern states.

It's entirely possible that there are Jewel cichlids in lakes here. All it would take is one pair of fish to spawn several generations of them. The only way to get a positive ID would be a picture. Until then, if you think they're jewel cichlids, you'll probably want to check out the African cichlid section of the board for more info.
 
ryansmith83;4467366; said:
These are African cichlids. There are tons of cichlids loose in the rivers and lakes of Florida, particularly south Florida. This occurs for a few different reasons -- tropicals from the big fish farms get into the natural waterways by flooding and such, or aquarium owners get tired of their fish and release them. Our climate is usually warm enough here that these fish can live and breed year-round, so they don't die off in the winter like they would in northern states.

It's entirely possible that there are Jewel cichlids in lakes here. All it would take is one pair of fish to spawn several generations of them. The only way to get a positive ID would be a picture. Until then, if you think they're jewel cichlids, you'll probably want to check out the African cichlid section of the board for more info.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for that info! That was helpful indeed. So there is a possibility that what I'm seeing in the lake behind my house are Jewel Cichlids.
I'll definitely try and get some pics so you guys can see what I'm talking about and probably give me a positive ID. That's actually pretty cool if that's what they really are seeing as to they're not native here. I know introducing non-native fish to our lakes and rivers is not good and only causes problems but these little guys are pretty neat and I don't see how they would be a threat to anything. Just saying that so I don't get flamed on for thinking I support placing non-native fish in our water systems.
 
There is a huge koi pond at the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine and they keep tons of convict cichlids, both regular and pink, with the koi. They survived all winter and are spawning right now in the pond. You can watch them protecting fry from the little bridge over the pond. So yes, it's pretty easy for a lot of smaller cichlids to survive here. But again, try to get some pictures so we can positively ID them. There are some colorful native fish, too, so they could still be something else.
 
Great feedback guys! Thanks! :thumbsup: Very interesting to find out what these fish are and their backgrounds. You learn something new everyday. I'll definitely try to get some pics so it can be positively ID'd.
 
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