Male from La Ceiba
A male of Parachromis multifasciatus from La Ceiba [Honduras] in the aquarium of Morrell Devlin [USA]. Photo by Morrell Devlin. determiner Juan Miguel Artigas Azas

Family
Cichlidae

Sub-family
Cichlinae

Tribe
Therapsini

Genus
Parachromis


Curator

Published:

Last updated on:
06-Jul-2020

Parachromis multifasciatus (Regan, 1905)


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Original description as Cichlosoma multifasciatum:

ZooBank:4C49E5BF-8362-4A20-81C2-B0EC1DE2F08E.

  • Regan, Charles Tate. 1905. "A revision of the fishes of the American cichlid genus Cichlosoma and of the allied genera". Annals and Magazine of Natural History. (Ser7)16:60-77; 225-243; 316-340; 433-445 (ffm00042)

Conservation: Parachromis multifasciatus is not evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species. Since the 1970s, a direct and more aggressive competitor, Parachromis managuensis, was introduced by government agencies in the Grijalva Usumacinta drainage in Mexico, allegedly with the purpose of providing additionally protein for fishermen. I was told this in the early 1980s by a government technician of the Fishing ministry (Secretaria de Pesca, now defunct) but I have not been able to obtain official documentation of the introduction myself. P. multifasciatus has been seriously impacted by this introduction, and many hybrids reportedly occur near the mouth of the Usumacinta River (Miller, 2006). In my experience, P. multifasciatus has been extirpated from many bodies of water by its relative, as is the case of Laguna de las Ilusiones in the city of Villahermosa.

Parachromis multifasciatus is a fish of commercial importance as a food fish and caught daily and sold in local markets (Miller, 2006).