The Peacock basses of the genus Cichla are among the most popular food fish in South America. The animals grow large (30-60 cm, some even up to 100 cm) and have firm, tasty meat with few bones. They are also highly sought after as game fish and anglers travel long distances to catch certain tucunaré (the name given to the fish in the indigenous Tupi language). Scientifically and aquaristically, Cichla were treated very neglected until the 2000s. A distinction was generally only made between 2 species (ocellaris and temensis), which were considered to be purely specialist fish.
This has changed fundamentally. In a major revision of the genus in 2006, Kullander & Ferreira distinguished 15 species, including 9 species that they described as new species; a further species (C. cataractae) was added in 2020. One of the species described by Kullander & Ferreira is Cichla mirianae from the Tocantins and upper Xingu drainages. Cichla mirianae grows to around 50 cm long. The “Fogo” ( = fire) represents a local population of this species. It lives – or so it is said – in only one lake in Brazil. A floating fishing camp has been set up in the middle of the lake, to which there is no road. Very wealthy anglers fly in to catch the tucunaré with the fiery red breast. The photos that these sports anglers spread on the internet aroused the interest of big fish aquarists.
The first Cichla mirianae FOGO were incredibly expensive, as the exporters also had to fly to the lake in a small Cessna and collect the Cichla in correspondingly small numbers. In the meantime, however, Cichla mirianae FOGO is also offered as offspring from Southeast Asia. The juveniles, as we usually trade them, because the nervousness typical of Cichla species is particularly pronounced in this species and larger specimens are correspondingly sensitive to transportation, still have yellow bellies. All yellow parts of the body in adult Cichla mirianae FOGO turn fiery red – a fantastic sight!
In general, the care and breeding of Cichla species is relatively (!!!) popular nowadays. If sufficiently large aquaria (several thousand liters) can be provided, care and breeding are not particularly problematic, the animals are open breeders with a parent family, each brood contains several thousand young. As Cichla mirianae FOGO are only suitable for specialists with appropriate experience anyway, we will not provide detailed care recommendations here.
We have also made a small film about these fish, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1tR7kOEVNI
For our customers: the animals have code 636355 (12-15 cm) on our stock list. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
