Cichlasoma is a genus of freshwater fish in the cichlid family. The genus was previously very large (a wastebasket taxon), including cichlids from North America, including Central America, and South America.
Reclassification and subsequent splitting of the genus by Sven O. Kullander and other ichthyologists has resulted in removing many of the former species from Cichlasoma to genera such as Amphilophus, Archocentrus, Herichthys, Heros, Nandopsis, Parachromis, Thorichthys, Vieja and others in the tribe Heroini.
Species According to FishBase, there are currently sixteen recognized species in this genus, but three very different Middle American taxa ("C." geddesi a synonym of Herichthys deppii, and "C." istlanum and "C." trimaculatum placed in Amphilophus) are not included by Catalog of Fishes, effectively limiting Cichlasoma to a group of rather similar, medium-small cichlids of South America.
Cichlasoma amazonarum S. O. Kullander, 1983 Cichlasoma araguaiense S. O. Kullander, 1983 Cichlasoma bimaculatum (Linnaeus, 1758) (Black acara) Cichlasoma boliviense S. O. Kullander, 1983 Cichlasoma dimerus (Heckel, 1840) Cichlasoma geddesi (Regan, 1905) Cichlasoma istlanum (D. S. Jordan & Snyder, 1899) Cichlasoma orientale S. O. Kullander, 1983 Cichlasoma orinocense S. O. Kullander, 1983 Cichlasoma paranaense S. O. Kullander, 1983 Cichlasoma portalegrense (R. F. Hensel, 1870) Cichlasoma pusillum S. O. Kullander, 1983 Cichlasoma santifranciscense S. O. Kullander, 1983 Cichlasoma taenia (E. T. Bennett, 1831) (Brown coscarob) Cichlasoma zarskei Ottoni, 2011
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