''Hemichromis fasciatus'', also called the banded jewelfish and five-spot cichlid, is a species of fish in the

cichlid 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 this ...

family. It is distributed throughout

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 ...

. It can also be found in the

Nile Basin The Nile Basin is the part of Africa drained by the Nile River and its tributaries. Besides being the second largest hydrographic basin in Africa, the Nile Basin is effectively the most notable drainage basin on the continent. It covers approxim ...

Lake Chad Lake Chad (french: Lac Tchad) is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Central Africa, which has varied in size over the centuries. According to the ''Global Resource Information Database'' of the United Nations Environment Programme, ...

, and the upper

Zambezi The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...

. It can reach a total length of up to and a

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

of .

Description

The banded jewelfish is yellow-green with a bronze iridescence and has five large, black, glossy oval patches on the side of the body. Older specimens have a brick-red dot on each scale. The mouth is large and wide.Teugels, G.G. and D.F.E. Thys van den Audenaerde, 2003. Cichlidae. p. 521-600. In D. Paugy, C. Lévêque and G.G Teugels (eds.) The fresh and brackish water fishes of West Africa Volume 2. Coll. faune et flore tropicales 40. Institut de recherche de développement, Paris, France, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris, France and Musée royal de l'Afrique Central, Tervuren, Belgium, 815p. They are incredibly aggressive and will act like any other Jewelfish. If keeping these animals in an aquarium, your best chance is a large tank (75 gallon+), and with plenty of cover. Limit the selection of fish to one large adult or several small juveniles. Keep in mind you will have to separate them once they get too big, or they will kill each other.

References

External links

Banded Jewelfish

Hemichromis fasciatus
{{Taxonbar, from=Q966368 Fish of Africa fasciatus Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters Fish described in 1857