''Vieja melanurus'', the quetzal cichlid, redhead cichlid or firehead cichlid, 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 that is native to the Lake Petén system, the Grijalva–

Usumacinta River The Usumacinta River (; named after the howler monkey) is a river in southeastern Mexico and northwestern Guatemala. It is formed by the junction of the Pasión River, which arises in the Sierra de Santa Cruz (in Guatemala) and the Salinas ...

basin and other Atlantic river drainages in southern

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 ...

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

and Guatemala, with introduced populations in a few other countries. It typically inhabits slow-moving or standing waters such as rivers, lakes and lagoons; although primarily a freshwater fish, it may occur in slightly

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estu ...

habitats. It is popular in the aquarium trade, where often listed under the synonym ''V. synspila/synspilum''. It is almost entirely

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpar ...

, but may also take small animal prey. ''V. melanurus'' can reach a

total 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 ...

of . Males grow larger than females and also develop a prominent nuchal hump on their forehead. Adults are quite colourful cichlids with an orange to pinkish-red head, a body often displaying greenish, bluish, pink and golden-orange, and a horizontal black bar (often patchy or mottled) at the base of the tail; the belly and mottling elsewhere on the body can also be black. There are significant individual and geographical variations in the colours; partially, this is related to the clarity of the water at a location. Adults are always robust and high-bodies cichlids, but there are some regional variations depending on habitat. It has been used in creating new hybridized aquarium cichlids that became popular in Asia in recent years and is probably one of the parents of modern

blood parrot cichlid The blood parrot cichlid (''Amphilophus citrinellus'' × ''Vieja melanurus''), or parrot cichlid, is a hybrid species of fish in your the family Cichlidae. The fish was first bred in Taiwan around 1986. Blood parrots should not be confused wi ...

s and

flowerhorn cichlid Flowerhorn cichlids are ornamental aquarium fish noted for their vivid colors and the distinctively shaped heads for which they are named. Their head protuberance is formally called a nuchal hump. Like blood parrot cichlids, they are hybrids tha ...

References

melanurus Fish of Central America Taxa named by Albert Günther Fish described in 1862 {{Cichlidae-stub