''Mayaheros urophthalmus'', also known as the Mayan cichlid or Mexican mojarra is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of cichlid.

Taxonomy

Previously, this

was a member of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Cichlasoma ''Cichlasoma'' is a genus of freshwater fish in the cichlid family. The genus was previously very large (a wastebasket taxon), including cichlids from North America, including Central America, and South America. Reclassification and subsequent ...

'' and the subgeneric section '' Nandopsis''. However, the genus ''Cichlasoma'' is in revision and has been restricted to the 12 species of

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 sout ...

n cichlids related to ''Cichlasoma bimaculatum''. Thus, many of the approximately 100 species that were formerly members of ''Cichlasoma'' have yet to be formally assigned to a new genus.

Distribution

This species can be found in Middle America. It is native to the Atlantic slope of tropical

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica ...

, ranging from eastern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

southward to

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

.Miller, R.R. (1966): Geographical Distribution of Central American Freshwater Fishes. ''Copeia, 1966 (4): 773-802.'' It was first recorded from

Everglades National Park Everglades National Park is an American national park that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the United States and the largest wilderness of any kind east ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

in 1983 and is now a common nonindigenous fish in South Florida.Bergmann, G.T. & Motta, P.J. (2005): Diet and morphology through ontogeny of the nonindigenous Mayan cichlid ‘''Cichlasoma'' (''Nandopsis'')’ ''urophthalmus'' (Günther 1862) in southern Florida. ''Environmental Biology of Fishes, 72 (2): 205-211.''

Habitat

The Mayan cichlid inhabits freshwater marshes, mangrove swamps,

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

s, rocky shorelines,

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') ...

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

and coastal islands. Adults prefer coastal lagoons and rivers and may survive in marine conditions. It can be found in oxygen-rich areas near submerged vegetation and over muddy substrates. However, despite its preference for waters with dissolved oxygen content of at least 3.5 mg/L, it is capable of surviving in extreme hypoxia. This is because it is an oxygen conformer, becoming much less active in hypoxic water, and even surviving virtual anoxia for up to two hours. Unusually, this fish has been recorded in some

cenotes A cenote ( or ; ) is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater. The regional term is specifically associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where cenotes were commonly used ...

in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Description

''Mayaheros urophthalmus'' reaches a maximum length of 39.4 cm. This fish is one of the larger cichlids. The body is oval and flattened on the sides and the head is tapering towards the mouth. Fins are spiny. It has a base

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...

of yellow-brown to gray-brown in most cases, that becomes intense red during breeding. The head and throat are reddish, especially in younger fish. The caudal fin and the soft-sections of the dorsal and anal fin are usually more or less reddish. Six wide green-black vertical stripes run across the sides of the body between the base of the pectoral fin and the base of the caudal fin. There is a large black eye spot circled with blue-green on the tail stem (hence the species scientific name ''urophthalmus'' (from ''oura'', Greek for tail and ''ophthalmos'', Greek for eye). Since the distribution area of the species is relatively large, this species may occurs in different colors, which may differ from the one described above.

Human relevance

In its native range, the Mayan cichlid is a popular food fish. For this reason it is the basis of a regional fishery, is commonly used in aquaculture. As in many animals, the red color is much more brilliant in wild

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository ...

s than captive ones, but one can help maintain some of its vibrance by feeding the fish live foods and foods that contain

Vitamin A Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin and an essential nutrient for humans. It is a group of organic compounds that includes retinol, retinal (also known as retinaldehyde), retinoic acid, and several provitamin A carotenoids (most notably ...

, which breaks down into the red pigment beta-carotene in the body. It is among the most-studied of the

Neotropical The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

cichlids.Martínez-Palacios, C.A., Chávez-Sánchez, C. & Olvera Novoa, M.A. (1993): The potential for culture of the American Cichlidae with emphasis on ''Cichlasoma urophthalmus''. ''In'': Muir, J.F. & Roberts, R.J. (Eds.), ''Recent advances in aquaculture''. Vol. 4., Blackwell, Oxford, England. To date, the Mayan cichlid has been most intensively studied at localities in southeastern

on or near the Yucatan Peninsula.Gamboa-Pérez, H.C. & Schmitter-Soto, J.J. (1999): Distribution of cichlid fishes in the littoral of Lake Bacalar, Yucatan Peninsula. ''Environmental Biology of Fishes, 54 (1): 35-43.''

Biology

The Mayan cichlid is

philopatric Philopatry is the tendency of an organism to stay in or habitually return to a particular area. The causes of philopatry are numerous, but natal philopatry, where animals return to their birthplace to breed, may be the most common. The term derives ...

, or site tenacious, i.e. - individuals are non-migratory and prefer to stay within a home range.Faunce, C.H. & Lorenz, J.J. 2000. Reproductive Biology of the Introduced Mayan cichlid, Cichlasoma urophthalmus, Within an Estuarine Mangrove Habitat of Southern Florida. ''Environmental Biology of Fishes, 58 (2): 215-225.'' The Mayan cichlid has a minimum temperature requirement of about 14

degrees Celsius The degree Celsius is the unit of temperature on the Celsius scale (originally known as the centigrade scale outside Sweden), one of two temperature scales used in the International System of Units (SI), the other being the Kelvin scale. The ...

.Stauffer, J.R.Jr. & Boltz, S.E. (1994): Effect of Salinity on the Temperature Preference and Tolerance of Age-0 Mayan Cichlids. ''Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 123 (1): 101-107.'' In its native range, it inhabits waters with temperatures from 18 - 34 degrees Celsius, but its optimal temperature range is 28 - 33 degrees Celsius.Martinez-Palacios, C.A., Chavez-Sanchez, M.C. & Ross, L.G. (1996): The effects of water temperature on food intake, growth and body composition of ''Cichlasoma urophthalmus'' (Günther) juveniles. ''Aquaculture Research, 27 (6): 455-461.'' The Mayan cichlid is capable of surviving in a variety of conditions. It is euryhaline and can survive in a range of salinity from 0 - 40 ppt. Experiments on captive specimens have shown that it can tolerate abrupt increases in salinity of up to 15 ppt.Martinez-Palacios, C.A., Ross, L.G. & Rosado-Vallado, M. (1990): The effects of salinity on the survival and growth of juvenile ''Cichlasoma urophthalmus''. ''Aquaculture, 91 (1-2): 65-75.'' The Mayan cichlid has a broad range of tolerance to abiotic conditions and a broad functional repertoire to enable it to feed on about 20% of evasive prey due to its 6.8% jaw protrusion while feeding.Hulsey, C.D. & García de León, F.J. (2005): Cichlid jaw mechanics: linking morphology to feeding specialization. ''Functional Ecology, 19 (3): 487-494.'' This species is also a dietary generalist, consuming organisms from a variety of disparate taxa.Martinez-Palacios, C.A. & Ross, L.G. (1988): The feeding ecology of the Central American cichlid ''Cichlasoma urophthalmus'' (Gunther). ''Journal of Fish Biology, 33 (5): 665-670.'' However, it is susceptible to malnourishment, apparently due to the requirement that a relatively large proportion of its diet be animal prey. The Mayan cichlid's diet includes plant matter, smaller fish, algae, detritus,

snails A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

and

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

Reproduction

The Mayan cichlid is

territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

and

aggressive Aggression is overt or covert, often harmful, social interaction with the intention of inflicting damage or other harm upon another individual; although it can be channeled into creative and practical outlets for some. It may occur either reacti ...

when breeding. As parents, Mayan cichlids are highly protective of their young, and they have several broods per year. This species is a monogamous, biparental substrate spawner that exhibits minimal

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...

and guards its fry for up to six weeks. All of these traits are greatly developed and represent an extreme in the general pattern found in the genus ''

Mayaheros ''Mayaheros'' is a genus of cichlid fish that is native to Mexico and northern Central America. This genus has a disjunct distribution, with the ''M. urophthalmus'' group being found in the Atlantic drainages of southeastern Mexico (southern Vera ...

''. In Mexico, the Mayan cichlid spawns for a nine-month period from March to November, particularly during the wet season from June to September. This corresponds to a period when the water temperature is at least 24 degrees Celsius. Multiple broods are raised per year. The fry appear to be adapted to lotic water. They exhibit strongly positive geotactic behavior, actively swimming down to the substrate upon hatching from the egg and adhering themselves to the bottom by means of three pairs of mucous glands.

References

External link

* {{Taxonbar, from1=Q25354031, from2=Q684576 Heroini Cichlid fish of Central America Cichlid fish of North America Freshwater fish of Mexico Freshwater fish of the United States Fish of Guatemala Fish of Nicaragua Taxa named by Albert Günther Fish described in 1862 Articles containing video clips