''Heros efasciatus'' is a species of

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

freshwater

cichlid Cichlids () are a large, diverse, and widespread family of percomorph fish in the family Cichlidae, order Cichliformes. At least 1,760 species have been scientifically described, making it one of the largest vertebrate families, with on ...

native to the

Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributary, tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries ...

in South America. It is commonly found in the aquarium trade, often in its gold colored variation rather than the wild-type olive green one.

Diet

''Heros efasciatus'' is one of the few cichlid species that act a regular

frugivore A frugivore ( ) is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance ...

, quite notably during the wet season when

riparian zones A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripari ...

become inundated with water.

Concerns

Over the past few years, the popularity of ''Heros efasciatus'' within the aquarium trade has increased. Consequently, this species could be susceptible to over-exploitation, primarily because of their natural low densities and low

fecundity Fecundity is defined in two ways; in human demography, it is the potential for reproduction of a recorded population as opposed to a sole organism, while in population biology, it is considered similar to fertility, the capability to produc ...

References

efasciatus Fish of the Amazon basin Cichlid fish of Brazil Freshwater fish of Peru Fish described in 1840 Taxa named by Johann Jakob Heckel {{Cichlasomatinae-stub