what fish are considered guapotes?
- Thread starter Biggfeast
- Start date
I think it's just the parachromis, but I'm not sure. I know that's what they usually are at least...
Article
Giant Predatory Cichlids, THE TRUE GUAPOTES
(This article was originally published in Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Magazine, August 1980; pp. 39-47, 71-74. It is here reproduced with the permission of author Dr. Paul V. Loiselle).
(This article has been updated by the editor from the version Dr. Loiselle published 18 years ago. The changes are limited to the classification status of the Parachromis genus as a whole and the inclusion in the table of species of the recently described Parachromis loisellei).
What is a guapote? The term is applied in Central America to a group of large, attractively marked carnivorous cichlids ecologically analogous to the large and small mouthed basses of North America.What is a guapote? The term is applied in Central America to a group of large, attractively marked carnivorous cichlids ecologically analogous to the large and small mouthed basses of North America. More specifically, it refers to a number of the large species that according to Kullander (1996) can be referred to the genus Parachromis and to the monotypic Petenia splendida, whose highly specialized protractile jaw apparatus sets it apart from other Heroine sensus Kullander neotropical cichlid species. These robust cichlids share the role of top carnivore in the fresh water fish communities of most of southern Mexico and Central America with the garpikes of the genus Lepisosteus and the pimelodid catfishes of the genus Rhamdia. Their position at the apex of the trophic pyramid is challenged only in the San Juan basin of Nicaragua, where both the Great Lakes and the Rio San Juan are home to a trio of marine intruders, the sawfish, the bull shark and the tarpon. It is, therefore, no exaggeration to say that these cichlids are considerably more interesting to the fisherman than to the average aquarist, a fact that has led to the transplantation of several species to suitable habitats outside their natural ranges. All these cichlids are important food fishes in their countries of origin, and friends who have partaken of them tell me that they are superb eating. (For the benefit of the morbidly curious, I have indulged in cichlidophagy, having eaten a wide range of tilapias in Africa and surplus Midas cichlids from laboratory stocks in Berkeley. While not in the same league as Nile perch, the cichlids I have sampled lived up to their gustatory reputation in a most satisfactory fashion.)