Pearl cichlid

The pearl cichlid, Geophagus brasiliensis, is a freshwater fish of the South American cichlid family. It is native to southeastern Brazil, reaching north to Bahia, and to Paraguay, Uruguay and the far northeast of Argentina, where it lives in rivers, lakes and nearby slightly brackish lagoons. Males can reach about 25 centimetres in length while females stay a little over half that size. Body colour runs from pale light brown to dark blue or almost purple and shifts with mood and during mating, and bright blue speckles cover the body in a healthy fish. Pairs form when the young fish are only a few centimetres long and become territorial at breeding time. The species is popular with aquarists and has been introduced to the United States, Australia, the Philippines and Taiwan, including the Tweed and Swan River systems in Australia.