# Has anyone ever eaten a cichlid?



## malawi_luver

I saw this on a website and thought I would check it out and see.

http://evolution.unibas.ch/salzburger/africa07.htm

I don't want this to disgust or freak anyone out but I'm just curious about the taste of the larger cichlids?


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## toddnbecka

Never tried frontosa, that's a high-dollar fish to be snacking on around these parts. I have eaten farm-raised Tilapia though, they're always available at the market. No reason to think a wild-caught front would taste much different than a bass or walleye, but I have heard that aquarium-raised fish taste like the fish food they're fed.


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## DJRansome

The people who live around Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika eat the cichlids. Peacocks are/were even called "tilapine". I would expect them to taste like tilapia.


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## firetiger

I have heard oscars are delicious! Mine better never start acting up! :lol:


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## dwarfpike

Just the tilapia ... which was the fishiest tasting freshwater fish I've eaten.


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## DeadFishFloating

If it's small enough a human will eat it. If it's too big, a human will just it down to size. Cooking it is a personal taste.


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## firenzena

Tucking into some smoked Marlin that I caught last week as I read this.

Ate some freshwater crays (Koura) I had in a tank for a while, had carp in China, and happy to eat trout I've caught as long as I can help with the taste by seasoning, but fair to say my haps and peacocks are safe.


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## adam79

I've eaten cichlid many times. Anytime I change my stock and the food value is more than the trade in value, I figure what the heck. Larger species filet out nicely and can be fried in garlic butter with a buerre blanc sauce or panko breaded an deep fried with tater sauce. You can can smaller ones much like sardines. A little hot sauce on a cracker and they are delicious little snack. Jack dempsey's make for a great ceviche. My favorite so far has been pike cichlid. I think it has something to do with thier high protein diet. Ofcoarse, I'm totally full of it. It's amusing to think of peoples wide eyes while reading this. I could never eat a pet. A lot of the fish we keep are considered no more than food to the natve people living around the waters where they come from. I was a fisherman long before a fish keeper, so I've eaten plenty of native fish. I was suprised to find out many of the panfish, sunfish and perch I catch all the time are being kept by hobbiest in Europe. Peacock Bass, and large South American species are popular sport fish.


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## exasperatus2002

I have. Anyone who's ever eaten Tilapia has eaten a cichlid. Its a bland white flesh. I prefer flounder over it as flounder is sweeter.


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## CoolCichlid

This one look like a tilapia









I eat tilapia and I like it!


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## mattfromcraig

I know that the native people in central america in Nicarauga eat managuense (aka Jags ) and they call it Mangua and say it is one of the best tasting fish they catch. I have eatin tilapia and I loved it and still eat it.


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## LSBoost

I'm sure people eat oscar down south.


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## pistolpete

When I was living in Mexico, I used to hike to a cenote out in the jungle and spear fish cichlids. Not sure of the species, but they were about 10 to 12 inches with a bit of a hump head. We'd fry them on a fire right there and they were delicious. That's the case with most fresh caught fish though. I'd say rainbow trout makes much better eating.

Snorcheling in those cenotes was truly amazing. They are caves with the ceiling collapsed. crystal clear water teaming with cichlids and live bearers and the odd turtle. There was one called casa cenote that had salt water about 15 feet down and fresh water on top. It was pretty neat seeing a barracuda down below and beautiful sailfin mollies at the surface.


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## Scorpio

Would they taste like chicken?


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## css virginia

I have -Never- eaten a cichlid and -Never- will....I have ingested and enjoyed a Burger King Whaler sandwich-and a McDonalds "Filet-O-Fish"... :roll: ...but those don't count.


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## fishlover301

lol yeah i'd have to pass on eating a cichlid...mine are way to small anyway


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## tranced

css virginia said:


> I have -Never- eaten a cichlid and -Never- will....I have ingested and enjoyed a Burger King Whaler sandwich-and a McDonalds "Filet-O-Fish"... :roll: ...but those don't count.


they dont contain anything natural, let alone anything in the cichlid family lol


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## Toby_H

I advocate eating Cichlids over eating McDonalds/Burger King anyday...

I ate very large home raised Pacu once... it's was frikkin nasty... I do not suggest makign a meal out of a fish that was raised on Cichlid Pellets in home aquaria conditions...

But I'd dine on one pulled out of a Florida canal or SA/CA stream anyday! Just haven't stumbled across the opporutunity...


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## kuni

If you've eaten tilapia, you've eaten a cichlid.

Almost all of the cichlids that reach at least a foot in length are eaten in their native countries.


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## rwolff

tilapia....hmmm, yummie!


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## Guest

Anyway who eats Tilapia eats cichlids.

Cichlids are widely eaten on the coasts of Lakes Tanganyika and Malawi.

I'm sure in Central and South America where larger cichlids are common those are eaten as well.


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## Big Texx

I'm sure they are delicious


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## JerseyGiant88

Aside from tasting like pellets, isn't it bad to eat aquarium fish because of all the chemicals we put in our tanks? Which is too bad, cuz i have 2 jack dempseys and i heard they taste **** good


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## Lunafish

JerseyGiant88 said:


> Aside from tasting like pellets, isn't it bad to eat aquarium fish because of all the chemicals we put in our tanks? Which is too bad, cuz i have 2 jack dempseys and i heard they taste darn good


You put chemicals in your tanks? Ok I'm biased, I have well water so I don't need any dechlorinator and the ph and alkalinity are already suitable to the fish I keep.

Matt


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## sevmeera

any of the fish in the freshwater bass family are cichlids, largemouth, smallmouth, sunfish, as well as several other varieties of bass all belong to the cichlid family, so anyone who eats bass eat cichlids.


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## rogersb

sevmeera said:


> any of the fish in the freshwater bass family are cichlids, largemouth, smallmouth, sunfish, as well as several other varieties of bass all belong to the cichlid family, so anyone who eats bass eat cichlids.


And here all along I thought they were in the sunfish family 8)


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## Chromedome52

Largemouth/Smallmouth Bass and Sunfish are in the family Centrarchidae. They are in the Order Perciformes, as are Cichlidae, Percidae, and several others with edible fish. But Bass and Sunfish are not in the same Family as Cichlids.

The names "Bass", "Perch", and "Sunfish" are all common names, and there are a few Cichlid species that have some of those common names attached to them (Peacock Bass, Rio Grand Perch). This confuses some folks, but cannot be helped because Common names are not set by any scientific order.


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## sevmeera

I stand corrected, I meant same order! LOL jk


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## Afishionado

Tilapia is definitely one of my favorite fish. As for fish from our aquariums, I'm a bit skeptical about how fish raised on NLS would taste. Also, if you've ever had to treat your tank for parasites & diseases, you may have noticed the medicine's packaging usually states it is not for use on fish intended for human consumption, causes cancer in California etc... (jk, you know what I mean). Now I'm sure the fish we buy sometimes contains stuff we'd rather not consume as well, but I have no control over that.


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## ChadRamsey

my fish are my pets just like my dog. i CLOULD eat them just like i couldnt eat my dog. :thumb:


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## Pagan

I've had tilapia, but I had no idea it was of the cichlid family.


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## dwarfpike

I'm not sure if it was the sauce it was in or what, but did anyone else that has had tilapia find it 'fishy' tasting? Normally freshwater fish don't, but to me it had an even more strong 'fishy' flavor than salmon ... though not as bad as swordfish.


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## Afishionado

You must not have had very fresh fish (or perhaps it was not even Tilapia: less expensive commercial food fish species are often substituted for more expensive ones unannounced to the consumer, a practise that should be illegal but occurs very, very commonly. That being said, Tilapia are not all thatexpensive...) Reasonably fresh Tilapia are one of the least "fishy" tasting fish I've had.


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## rwolff

Define fishy taste?
Because all fish taste like fish and I had eaten a million types of fish. 
All taste differently but all taste like fish. 
I enjoy deep water fish, they have the most cholesterol, the taste is very good and the meat stays very moistly.
And Tilapia has a very good taste for a freshwater fish.


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## dwarfpike

It's hard to describe. Salty and ... well fishy. :lol:

For example, swordfish tastes extremely "fishy" ... salmon sort of fishy ... and halibut and cod have zero fishy taste.

Most freshwater fish I've had (striped bass, rainbow and cutthroat trout, catfish) don't taste fishy at all ... on par with cod or halibut.


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## ChadRamsey

ChadRamsey said:


> my fish are my pets just like my dog. i CLOULD eat them just like i couldnt eat my dog. :thumb:


oops, i meant couldN"T :thumb:


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## Afishionado

Fishy for me generally equates to not fresh. (That's as much to do with how the fish has been stored as now long it has been out of the water.) One species that has always tasted 'off' to me regardless is Haddock (frequently substituted for Sole I believe). I have had shark meat that was fine on one occasion and absolutely the most awful thing I have ever struggled to force down on another. Talk about a "fishy" taste... (it was one of those delicate Business lunches where spitting out food would be a serious faux-pas; no second bite was taken though...)


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## sevmeera

some fish taste "fishy" regardless of freshness, it all depends on the amount of oil contained in the fish's flesh, for example a bluefish is very fishy tasting, and is also very oily, fluke or striper are far less oily and therefore less fishy tasting. Bluefish eat mostly menhaden or "bunker", which is one of the most oily fish anywhere, so it's no surprise that they would be oily and fishy tasting.


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## mrae

firenzena said:


> Tucking into some smoked Marlin that I caught last week as I read this.
> 
> Ate some freshwater crays (Koura) I had in a tank for a while, had carp in China, and happy to eat trout I've caught as long as I can help with the taste by seasoning, but fair to say my haps and peacocks are safe.


My Kong Parrott maybe a total jerk and has attacked one too many times but I will not and can not eat Mongo.


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