If red is your colour, then you should go for Thorichthys maculipinnis, writes Michel Keijman. So, what makes this cichlid so special?
IT WAS FEBRUARY 2001 and I was in Mexico with Hans van Heusden on a fishing expedition in search of cichlids. We were just south of Lake Catemaco, not far from the ‘Reserva especial de la Biosfera Sierra de Sta. Martha’, on the relatively flat plains of the state of Veracruz. Specifically, we were looking for a very special cichlid named Paraneetroplus nebulifer which was rediscovered in the area a little while back. But we also had the opportunity to seek out the ellioti cichlid, Thorichthys maculipinnis (named at that time as Thorichthys ellioti).
We drove towards Hueyapan de Ocampo, seeking the Río dos Caños. After passing a little town, we saw the river to our left. It flowed through a deep riverbed, which was probably formed during the wet season. During times of heavy rainfall, the slow and shallow river we could see would be flow with waters many metres deeper. Parking our car near the bank of the Río dos Caños, what struck us was that the soil consisted of a mixture of sand and lava grit. We could also see that a lot of stones in the river itself consisted of lava—produced, no doubt, by the nearby San Martin volcano. Curious as we were, we grabbed our snorkel gear to look for cichlids.
Meet maculipinnis
In 1904 American ichthyologist Seth Eugene Meek originally described Thorichthys ellioti, a cichlid from ‘Motzorongo, Veracruz’ in southern Mexico, and named in honour of the former Director of the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago. The scientific name was eventually revised, firstly to Cichlasoma ellioti, and finally to Thorichthys maculipinnis, the name which stands to this day. But, as with so many fish, by the time the scientific name had been revised the common name had become a staple part of the fishkeeping vernacular. Elliot’s cichlid, or the ellioti cichlid, became inseparable from the fish, and the common name/scientific name mismatch persists.
All species in the genus Thorichthys are relatively small cichlids. They have recognisably elongate and angular head profiles, but small mouths. Within the genus, scales are not present on the base of the soft dorsal or anal fins, while the pectoral fins are elongated, and taper to a moderately defined point (rather than a rounded edge).
At the time of writing there are nine valid species within the genus: T. affinis; T. aureus; T. callolepis; T. helleri; T. mac
