FISH ROOM PLUS
07-08-2007, 7:36 PM
What makes a cichlid a chiclid? How are, Orange chromids, Angle fish, Convicts, Pikes, ect related? What makes all of these fish cichids?
jpappy789
07-08-2007, 7:39 PM
From wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cichlid
"This very large grouping shares a single key trait: the fusion of the lower pharyngeal bones into a single tooth-bearing structure.
The particular features of cichlids that distinguish them from the other Labroidei include:A single nostril on each side of the forehead instead of two. No bony shelf below the orbit of the eye. The lateral line organ is divided into two sections, one on the upper half of the flank and a second along the midline of the flank from about halfway along the body to the base of the tail. A distinctively shaped otolith.The small intestine leaves the stomach from its left side, not from its right side as in other Labroidei."
Don't know what this all means but hope it helps...
Cichlids are part of the largest group of fish (advanced bony fish of the Teleosteie group), and are spiny-finned fish of the order Acanthoperygii, which belongs to the larger or super order Perciformes, or perch-like fish.
Cichlids all have the fusion of lower pharangeal bones into a single triangular tooth bearing structure, and upper and lower jaws are enabled by way of complicated muscle structure to function as a second set of jaws when eating. These characteristics are also shred by the Labridae (wrasses), Embiotocidae (viviparous surfperches) and Pomoacentridae (damselfish) orders.
Cichlids have a single pair of nostrils (distinguishing them from wrasses and surfperches).
This together with moderate to highly protrusible jaws, toothless palates, an anal fin with three or more spines and a single dorsal fin with spiny and soft elements distinguishes them from all other freshwater fish.
The only skeletal characteristic which distinguishes them from marine damselfish is the absence in cichlids of bony shelf beneath the orbit of the eye and the presence in cichlids of a suture line at the point of fusion of the two halves of the pharyngeal bone.
Most though not all cichlids have a divided lateral line, which also distinguishes those that do have divided lines from damselfish.
Finally, Cichlids are second line/division freshwater fish, having ancestors which evolved under marine conditions and which then successfully colonised freshwater. This group of fish also includes killifish and australian rainbowfiash (unlike primary division freshwater which evovled entirely in freshwater e.g elephant-noses and Cypriniformes)
Sources : the Cichlid Aquarium (Loiselle, 1994), Illustrated Encylodpedia of Tropical Fish (Sandford 2004), Guide to Tropical Cichlids (Sands, 2005)