Amatitlania sajica
species of cichlid fish
Amatitlania sajica, the T-bar cichlid or Sajica cichlid, is a Central American species of cichlid found in freshwater streams and lakes on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica. The fish is tan colored with seven indistinct bars on the body. The third bar is usually prominent and coupled with a dark lateral stripe running from the gill cover results in a horizontal T-shaped mark, hence the common name of T-bar cichlid.
Environment
The T-bar cichlid inhabits rivers which have moderate to strong currents in Costa Rica at up to 2000 feet of elevation, but they are not found in the rapids. They prefer smaller rocks and gravel. They are omnivorous, feeding on algal filaments, aquatic insects, seeds and bottom detritus.
Breeding
Male A. sajica reach to 12 cm. Mature females that are ready to spawn have a beautiful golden yellow color on their dorsal and anal fins.
These fish exhibits a number of different cichlid spawning behaviors including cave spawning (most common) and open substrate spawning. Which method that is used seem to depend on the mood of the parents not on the availability of suitable spawning caves.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q46641403. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2000.
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This entry incorporates text from “Amatitlania sajica” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.