Photo: mramorn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Jack Dempsey
Rocio octofasciata
20 cm
Adult size
300 L
Minimum volume
2
Minimum group
12 years
Lifespan
Water parameters
Understand these values- Genus
- Rocio
- Diet
- omnivore
- Social life
- pair
In the wild
Overview
This cichlid spotted with blue and green owes its name to the American boxer Jack Dempsey, world heavyweight champion in the 1920s, for its strong features and pugnacious temperament. The electric-blue “EBJD” form is a captive strain arising from a natural mutation, which stays smaller.
- Scientific name
- Rocio octofasciata (Regan, 1903)
- Classification
- Cichliformes › Cichlidae
- IUCN Red List
- Least concern (LC)
Natural habitat
Atlantic slope of Central America: from the Río Actopan (Veracruz, Mexico) to Belize, Guatemala and western Honduras; introduced populations in the United States, Russia, Australia and Thailand
Observations (GBIF) and localities Native countries Rivers and lakes
A generalist, it lives mainly in coastal rivers and the slow stretches of lower valleys: marshes with warm, murky water, weed-choked canals and ditches over mud or sand, lakes and ponds.
Behaviour
It lives with fish too large to be eaten, but a very large tank is needed to keep it with other cichlids. Young fish live together, then become aggressive towards each other at maturity; a pair, once formed, stays together but is hostile towards others of its kind and fish of the same shape. An omnivore with a carnivorous bias: sinking food, larvae, shrimp, with a plant component.
Sources:FishBase Seriously Fish GBIF · Base map: Natural Earth