Cichlid Profiles - Cichlasoma araguaiense
 

Poor Cichlasoma ! The once mighty genus now has only a few ugly fish left in it. C. araguaiense, described in 1983, is a brown or gray 4 inch fish with an irregular middorsal dark line from eye to caudal peduncle. The fifth splotch in the line is large, and there is an ocellus on the upper cadual peduncle. the fins may be wine colored or olive-green, and the there are some pearly spots on the dorsal and tail fin and a hint of yellow or copper on the operculum and chin. There is a short horizontal slash below the eye. It is primarlily a bottom dweller found in the Tocantin and Xingu River basins of the Amazon.

It likes pH of about 7 and 76-80 degrees. It is peaceful and can live in a 29 gallon tank. The males have long rear fin streamers. If anything else much is known about it, nobody is saying. Pictures available at "Images of Cichlasoma araguaiense."

Let's have a contest to be the first to give it a Common Name. The poor fish has virtually nothing else. By the way while there is no definition known for "araguaiense," Aragua is a city near the Tocantin River, so I am proposing it be called the " Aragua Cichlid."