Cichlid

family of fishes

Cichlids (pronounced 'sick-lids') are fishes from the family Cichlidae, in the order Cichliformes.

Cichlid
Temporal range: Eocene to present(molecular clock suggests Cretaceous origin)
Common freshwater angelfish,
Pterophyllum scalare
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Class:
Order:
Family:
Subfamilies

Cichlinae
Etroplinae
Heterochromidinae
Pseudocrenilabrinae
Ptychochrominae

It is a very large family of fish made up of more than 2500 species. Cichlids come in many different sizes, from 2.5 centimeters to almost a meter long. All cichlids have some form of parental care for their eggs and fry. That parental care may come in the form of guarding the eggs and fry or it may come in the form of mouthbrooding. Cichlids are famous for their speciation in East African lakes.[1][2]

References change

  1. Salzburger W., Mack T., Verheyen E., Meyer A. (2005). "Out of Tanganyika: genesis, explosive speciation, key-innovations and phylogeography of the haplochromine cichlid fishes" (PDF). BMC Evolutionary Biology. 5 (17): 17. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-5-17. PMC 554777. PMID 15723698.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Kornfield, Irv & Smith, Peter (November 2000). "African Cichlid fishes: model systems for evolutionary biology". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 31: 163–196. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.31.1.163. Archived from the original on 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2011-06-06.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)