Blue flash firemouth

Care at a glance

Overview

The showiest of the firemouths and no harder to keep than the common one. Keep a pair in a 250 liter tank with sand, stone and cover. Its threat display is the reason to own it: it flares its gill covers to make the head look several times larger, and it does this at rivals, at other fish and at your hand. It is mild outside breeding. Feed pellets and frozen foods, and give it neutral to hard water.

In the wild

Thorichthys aureus lives over sand and stone in clear rivers on the Atlantic slope of Guatemala and Belize, water that is warm and moderately hard. Keep it at 24 to 29 degrees Celsius and pH 7.0 to 8.2. Clean water matters more to this genus than to most Central Americans.

Good to know

Thorichthys aureus reaches about 18 centimeters and is spangled turquoise over an apricot body, brighter than the familiar Thorichthys meeki. Like all firemouths it is a substrate spawner with both parents guarding, and the gill-flare display doubles as a bluff against predators, not just rivals.

Did you know

Aureus means golden, but the fish banks in turquoise; the name paid in the wrong metal.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Yellow-cheek firemouth

  Thorichthys helleri

  Freshwater

  6.7 in (17 cm)66 gal (250 L)75–84°F (24–29°C)
• Callolepis firemouth

  Thorichthys callolepis

  Freshwater

  6.7 in (17 cm)66 gal (250 L)75–84°F (24–29°C)
• Yellow firemouth

  Thorichthys affinis

  Freshwater

  6.7 in (17 cm)66 gal (250 L)75–84°F (24–29°C)
• Blackgullet firemouth

  Thorichthys pasionis

  Freshwater

  7.9 in (20 cm)66 gal (250 L)75–84°F (24–29°C)

• 

  Ellioti cichlid

  Thorichthys maculipinnis

  Freshwater

  5.9 in (15 cm)53 gal (200 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)

• 

  Firemouth cichlid

  Thorichthys meeki

  Freshwater

  5.9 in (15 cm)30 gal (115 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)