Pancho Villa firemouth

Care at a glance

Overview

This is one of the smaller firemouth-type cichlids, kept best as a single fish or a bonded pair rather than a group, since pairs hold a bottom territory and will chase off intruders. Like its relatives it bluffs more than it bites, flaring its bright throat and gill covers to look bigger, but it stays mostly peaceful with calm, similarly sized tankmates. It feeds low down, sifting sand and taking small invertebrates, so offer sinking foods, frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp, and the occasional vegetable-based pellet. A pair needs around 200 liters with sand, cover, and a few flat stones or caves for spawning.

In the wild

It is endemic to the Coatzacoalcos river basin on the Atlantic slope of southern Mexico, where it keeps to quieter, weedy stretches over sand and among roots. Set up a tank with a soft sand bed, driftwood, hardy plants or leaf litter, and open swimming space broken by low cover. Keep the water warm at about 24 to 29 C and neutral to slightly alkaline, roughly pH 7 to 8.2, with clean, well-filtered conditions and gentle flow.

Good to know

Thorichthys panchovillai is a small cichlid of the family Cichlidae, reaching about 12 centimeters. It was described in 2017 from the Coatzacoalcos basin and named after the Mexican revolutionary Francisco Pancho Villa. The species is polymorphic, appearing in blue, green, and gold or orange forms depending on where in the basin it is found. Like other Thorichthys it pairs up to breed, laying eggs on a cleaned surface and guarding the young together, a project of moderate difficulty.

Did you know

The female carries a private badge of identity: a distinct black blotch set between the fifth and sixth spines of her dorsal fin, a marking the describers used to help tell this firemouth apart from its close relatives.

Common questions

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