Dwarf cichlid is a term used by

fishkeeping Fishkeeping is a popular hobby, practiced by aquarists, concerned with keeping fish in a home aquarium or garden pond. There is also a piscicultural fishkeeping industry, serving as a branch of agriculture. Origins of fishkeeping Fish have ...

hobbyists to describe an arbitrary assemblage of small-sized

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

from the family

Cichlidae Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have contradicted thi ...

. Although the grouping is widely used in the

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

industry and hobby, the grouping has no

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

basis and is poorly defined.Linke H, Staeck L (1994) ''American cichlids I: Dwarf Cichlids. A handbook for their identification, care and breeding.'' Tetra Press. Germany. Though dwarf cichlids are by definition small-sized cichlids, there is no accepted maximum length of a dwarf-sized cichlid. Some authors suggest a maximum of 10 centimetres (3.9 in.), while other suggest a maximum length of 12 centimetres (4.7 in.).Richter H-J (1989) ''Complete Book of Dwarf Cichlids.'' Tropical Fish Hobbyist, USA The term is most frequently used to describe small

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

n or

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

n species which are suitable for soft, acidic ( pH 4 to 7) densely planted aquariums, however, some aquarists and authors include within this "dwarf cichlid group" a variety of small-sized cichlids from the alkaline

African rift lake The Rift Valley lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south, and includes the African Great Lakes in the south. These include some of the world's ...

s.Loiselle PV. (1994) ''The Cichlid Aquarium'', Voyageur Press, Pelvicachromis pulcher (male)

Dwarf cichlids prefer aquaria with plenty of hard-leafed plants. They are generally shy, except when they're breeding, and are considered ideal for community tanks, though they should not be placed with other, non-dwarf, cichlids or other boisterous or aggressive species.

References

Cichlidae Fish common names {{fishkeeping-stub

See also

References