''Nannacara'' is a genus of small

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

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 ...

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 ...

endemic to

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 ...

. The genus is part of the Cichlasomatini tribe of the Cichlasomatinae subfamily. 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 ...

hobby, the fish is considered a

dwarf cichlid Dwarf cichlid is a term used by fishkeeping hobbyists to describe an arbitrary assemblage of small-sized fish from the family Cichlidae. Although the grouping is widely used in the aquarium industry and hobby, the grouping has no taxonomic or ...

along with ''

Apistogramma ''Apistogramma'' is a large genus of freshwater fish in the family Cichlidae found in South America, but also commonly kept in aquariums. They are dwarf cichlids that mostly feed on tiny animals and have breeding behaviors that vary depending on ...

'', ''

Mikrogeophagus ''Mikrogeophagus'' is a genus of small cichlids native to the Amazon basin in South America. M. ''ramirezi'' is native to the Llanos of the Orinoco basin. M. ''altispinosus'' is from the Rio Mamoré and the middle and lower Rio Guaporé basins i ...

'', and ''

Dicrossus ''Dicrossus'' is a genus of small cichlid fishes native to rivers in the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America. These cichlids have several dark spots on the sides of their bodies (although very faint in some). Depending on the species, th ...

'' species. ''Nannacara anomala'' is the most commonly encountered species in the aquarium trade.

Species

There are currently six recognized species in this genus: * ''

Nannacara adoketa The Zebra acara (''Ivanacara adoketa'') is a species of cichlid from Rio Uaupes and Rio Preto, two side rivers of Rio Negro in Brazil. This species can reach a length of TL. This species prefers a pH between 4.5 and 6.0, and a temperatur ...

'' S. O. Kullander & Preda-Pedreros, 1993 (Zebra acara) * ''

Nannacara anomala The goldeneye cichlid (''Nannacara anomala'') is a species of cichlid found in fresh water from the Aruka River in Guyana, to the Maroni River in Suriname. It is often found on flooded savannas near the coast. The male grows to a length of ...

Regan The family name Regan, along with its cognates O'Regan, O Regan, Reagan, and O'Reagan, is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin or Ó Ríogáin, from Ua Riagáin. The meaning is likely to have originated in ancient Gaelic ''ri'' ...

, 1905 (Goldeneye cichlid) * ''

Nannacara aureocephalus ''Nannacara aureocephalus'' is a species of cichlid endemic to French Guiana in South America where it occurs in the Approuague River basin. Its habitat is shallow water near the edges of swamps, and areas of stagnant water in forest creeks. ...

'' Allgayer, 1983 * ''

Nannacara bimaculata ''Nannacara bimaculata'' is a species of cichlid endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous ...

'' C. H. Eigenmann, 1912 * '' Nannacara quadrispinae'' Staeck & I. Schindler, 2004 * ''

Nannacara taenia ''Nannacara taenia'' is a species of cichlid found near Belém in Brazil in 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 ...

, 1912 In a book published in 2006, ''Nannacara adoketa'' and ''Nannacara bimaculata'' were reassigned to the new genus ''

Ivanacara ''Ivanacara'' are a genus of cichlid fishes from tropical South America. This genus was identified as a new in 2006, but many authorities do not recognize it and maintain its species in '' Nannacara''. Species * '' Ivanacara adoketa'' ( Kullande ...

''. This change has not been recognized by

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

, but it has been adopted by the

Catalog of Fishes Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously up ...

References

* Cichlasomatini Cichlid genera Taxa named by Charles Tate Regan {{Cichlidae-stub