Being voracious, their primary diet as adults consists of other fishes with most of them being minnows or other small fish.

The Spotted Peacock Bass (Cichla temensis) is a highly desirable game fish well-known for its aggressive strikes and strong fights. Like other peacock bass, the spotted peacock bass is not actually a bass at all. The bass name was given to the Butterfly Peacock Bass when it was imported to Florida from South America in the 1950s.

In South America, where it is native, the Butterfly Peacock Bass is known as pavon instead of bass. While it may resemble the largemouth in shape and form, it is a far different fish and angling techniques are different.

For one, it sleeps at night and can only be caught during the day with the best fishing hours when direct sunlight is on them. Moreover, sunlight plays a major role in their life, governing spawning, feeding habits and growth.

The Spotted Peacock Bass is considered the same species as the Speckled Peacock Bass even though it has a very different colour pattern. While the spotted bass was previously considered a different subspecies of the Peacock Bass, it has since been classified as the same species as the Speckled Peacock Bass. as the change was recent and there is a lot of confusion, we list it on irs own pages. This is the only peacock bass that has spots on its head and tail and is considerably different in appearance to any other peacock bass.

The Spotted Peacock is a subspecies of the Cichlidae family and Cichlids and are a tropical fish that are native throughout Africa and South America, though many subspecies have been introduced to the United States, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Panama, Singapore, Guam, Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the United States Virgin Islands. They are commonly called tucunare in Brazil and Peru, pavon in other Spanish speaking and bass in North America.

Spotted Peacock Bass have several qualities that make them an ideal angling target. For one, they are very territorial and aggressively defend their territory including their fertilized eggs and the young fry up to an age of ten weeks. As they are so territorial, ideal baits and lures are not as important to get strikes as the placement and movement of the lure. Live baits are successful and will generate higher probabilities of landing a lunker, however, playing on their territorial instincts is more strategic.

The Spotted Peacock Bass, Cinchado in Spanish, has an unmistakable mottle patch directly behind the eyes and four horizontal dotted lines on both sides that tend to disappear when the fish gets over 20 inches. As the dotted lines disappear, three wide vertical black lines will appear on both sides. The spotted bas is also one of the largest Spotted Peacock Basses or Pavons as they can reach 20 pounds.

Being voracious, their primary diet as adults consists of other fishes with most of them being minnows or other small fish. A typical fishing trip during the dry season will often yield as much as 25 peacock bass per day weighing anywhere from 5- to 20 pounds.