Red Lips

About

Found only in a handful of coastal river systems in French Guiana, Satanoperca rhynchitis is a member of the eartheater cichlid family with one immediately obvious field mark: the bright red lips of adult fish, which is partly why it circulated in the hobby for years under the trade name 'red lips' before being formally described. It belongs to the S. jurupari group and was long lumped in with that species, and the taxonomy around these fish remains genuinely unresolved, with intermediate populations in neighboring Amapá state and ongoing questions about where one species ends and another begins. In the aquarium, the temperament label of aggressive on the care sheet needs some context. Outside of spawning, this species is surprisingly tolerant of similarly sized peaceful tankmates and poses no real threat to anything it cannot swallow whole. The aggression becomes real when a pair forms a breeding territory, at which point other fish, including other members of the same group, need space or separation. Keeping a group of five to eight individuals is strongly recommended, since small groups tend to produce stressed, skittish fish or cause weaker individuals to bear the brunt of dominance behavior. This is a maternal mouthbrooder, and breeding is achievable for patient keepers willing to provide consistent water changes and a good varied diet.