Species group · Bony fish
WAnimals has 3 species of cichlid, in the family Cichlidae.
Ranges calculated from the profiles that record the figure, not from all 3.
Each one has its own full profile. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.
No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.
Recorded in 8 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:
The female broods the eggs in her mouth for some three weeks.
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The cichlids of Lake Malawi are one of the most spectacular examples of adaptive radiation: several hundred species have arisen from a handful of ancestors in under a million years.
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The mbuna hardly ever cross the sandy stretches between rocky headlands, which isolates the populations of each reef and speeds up the emergence of new species.
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The populations of the Nicaraguan crater lakes, isolated only a few thousand years ago, are giving rise to new species within the same lake, and are one of the best-documented examples of speciation without geographical barriers.
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Gold and grey individuals coexist in the same population: the gold colour appears during the fish's life, when it loses its dark pigment cells.
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It is one of the parents of the aquarium blood parrot cichlid, an artificial hybrid.
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Fiercely territorial and a good parent: the pair defend their fry together.
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The pair defend the territory and tend the eggs and fry together, a form of parental care that has made it a model species in behavioural studies.
From Convict Cichlid