Cichla ocellaris

The introduction of Cichla ocellaris mainly occurs in altered environments, where the community of fishes is already in decline. The presence of these highly adapted and quickly proliferating predators causes serious damage to these communities by predation, competition, and cascade effects throughout the whole trophic chain (Gomiero and Braga, 2004).

\"From Espínola et al. (2015): The Cichla [ocellaris] invasion was followed by major changes in native fish populations and food web structure.\"; \"Although fish richness and diversity were, in fact, drastically lower in the lakes hosting tucunare [...] (Menezes et al. 2011)\"

\"After the introduction of C. ocellaris into Lake Gatun, Panama, largescale changes in food-web structure and aquatic community composition were recorded (Zaret and Paine, 1973). For example there was a reduction in almost all secondary consumers. The reduction in the planktivore Melaniris chagresi (Atherinidae) resulted in a reduction in tertiary-consumer populations including tarpon, black terns, kingfishers and herons in addition to changes within the zooplankton community. Near Barro Colorado Island in Lake Gatun, seven of eight native fish species declined by 50–100% and sites occupied by C. ocellaris contained seven native fish species in surveys compared with 13 fish species at sites where C. ocellaris was not present (Zaret and Paine, 1973).\"; \"From McNeely and Schutyser (2003): “[…] and the reduction in the bird community around Lake Atitlan as a result of the introduction of the predatory fish species Cichla ocellaris which dramatically altered the trophic structure of the lake (Zaret and Paine, 1973).”

Moreover, previous inventories of the fish population in one of our study lakes, Lake Redonda, document local species extinction of Metynnis cf. roosevelt, Astyanax bimaculatus, Cheirodon sp., and Crenicichla lepidota, Cichlasoma bimaculatum, and possibly of Hoplias malabaricus, after tucunaré introduction between 1989 and 1990 (Molina et al. 1996) (Table 1). Fifteen years later, two species disappearing immediately upon the tucunaré introduction, Metynnis cf. lippincottianus and Hoplias malabaricus, co-occured with tucunaré in the lake, while the other species remained absent. We do not know how the two previously extinct species reestablished themselves in the lake, but possibly Metynnis cf. lippincottianus avoided regional extinction due to its large body size (9.95 ± 3.84 cm).

Algumas