Firemouth Cichlid is basically a type of aquarium fish with silver coloration and with black spots marking lined up across its body starting from the gills and end up either in the middle region of the body with some actually going straight until the end reaching the tail fin. What makes it special from others fish in the cichlidae family is the appearance of red colored area on the belly region, which is probably where it got its name from. When the fish feels threatened, they will start to open the gills as wide as possible so that it will look fierce and it’s meant to scare away other fish that tries to encroach into its territory. However, this is not a sign of impending aggressive behavior because they rarely attack others except during the mating season.Being a tropical climate freshwater fish, their requirement is towards water temperature that falls within the region of 26 to 28 degree Celsius while pH is close to neutral around 7. A matured firemouth cichlid can grow up to around 6 inches in length and a tank size measuring about 40 gallon should be perfect for their survival. They also prefer soft water and the tank setup should have a lot of vegetation filled with live aquarium plants (java fern is highly recommended) in order to get them acclimatized to the home aquarium environment. Firemouth cichlid is generally accepted as community fish and as long as the other tank mates somehow measure with a size that does not fit into the mouth and generally peaceful, that should be fine. Somehow mix of corydoras catfish, bolivian rams cichlids and clown loach, seem to get along well with your firemouth and all these fish species can be your main consideration towards setting up your community aquarium.
Breeding your firemouth cichlids can be a rewarding experience since there’s a high demand for their young fry and there are fish lovers who are willing to fork out at least $10 for a well-developed specimen. What you can do to promote spawning is to enrich their diet with live foods. Firemouth cichlids will generally accept fish flakes, pellets and tablets but with higher proportion of live feed, this will stimulate the spawning process. During the mating period, both male and female exhibits full bright coloration that is simply stunning. The pair will choose a breeding spot, which they will defend as their territory and soon after the eggs are laid, all should hatch in about 2 days depending on the water temperature. Young fry will readily accept brine shrimps and liquid fry food and they will be under the care of their parents.
