Taxonomy & naming
The species was described by the French zoologists Léon Vaillant and Jacques Pellegrin in 1902 as Heros bocourti, from material collected in Guatemala by the naturalist Marie Firmin Bocourt, for whom it is named. Like virtually every Central American heroine it spent the twentieth century in the omnibus genus Cichlasoma, and was later treated under Theraps and Herichthys as those genera were carved up. The genus Cincelichthys was erected by McMahan & Piller in 2015, with this species (as Neetroplus bocourti) designated the type, and diagnosed by its distinctive spatulate, chisel-like oral teeth — truncated and labiolingually (side-to-side) flattened — unlike the conical or notched teeth of related genera. The Catalog of Fishes (Fricke, Eschmeyer & Van der Laan) lists the species as Cincelichthys bocourti (Vaillant & Pellegrin 1902), the type species of the genus; its only congener is Cincelichthys pearsei. The genus belongs to tribe Heroini among the herbivore-leaning Middle American cichlids; FishBase notes its precise placement is still treated as incertae sedis pending a fuller revision of the heroines.
Morphology
Cincelichthys bocourti is a high-bodied, deep and laterally compressed cichlid reaching around 8 in standard length, with a steeply rising forehead that gives it a tall, almost rhomboid profile. Adults are a warm golden-tan to olive — the source of the 'golden mojarra' name — often with darker vertical barring across the flanks that can be raised or hidden with mood, and pearly or dusky speckling on the body and fins. The genus's defining feature is in the mouth: rows of spatulate, chisel-edged teeth, flattened side-to-side and squared at the tip, set in fleshy lips — an apparatus built for scraping rather than grasping. The head is large and the snout blunt. Sexual dimorphism follows the heroine norm: dominant males grow larger and deeper, develop a heavier forehead (and can show a modest nuchal hump), and carry longer, more pointed dorsal- and anal-fin tips, while females are smaller and rounder-bodied. Breeding fish darken and their barring sharpens.
Habitat
The species is native to the Atlantic slope of Guatemala and Belize, with its core in Lake Izabal — Guatemala's largest lake — and the lower Río Polochic that feeds it, draining toward the Gulf of Honduras. Lake Izabal is a large, shallow (to about 59 ft) lowland lake whose proximity to the sea, via the Río Dulce, means wind-driven incursions of salt water keep parts of it slightly brackish; the surrounding habitat is warm, hard, mineral-rich water over mud and sand bottoms, with stands of aquatic vegetation. The species' range extends at least to the Río Moho and Temash River in southern Belize. Reported conditions are warm (around 79–82 °F) and decidedly hard and alkaline — keepers and field accounts alike stress that this is a hard-water fish, reflecting the limestone-influenced, partly brackish lake at the heart of its range. It is a fish of slow-moving and standing waters with soft bottoms and vegetation rather than fast rocky streams.
Feeding
The chisel-tooth cichlid is a grazing omnivore, and its remarkable dentition tells the story: the spatulate, chisel-edged teeth are made for scraping algae and aufwuchs (the film of algae, microbes and tiny invertebrates) from hard surfaces, and for rasping at plant material. Reported as largely herbivorous, it also takes the small aquatic invertebrates and zooplankton bound up in the biofilm it grazes, so its real diet is algae- and detritus-based with an animal supplement — a trophic level around 3.3 reflecting that mixed but vegetation-heavy feeding. In the lake and lower river it works mud, wood and any firm surface for this aufwuchs, filling a grazer's role in the food web rather than a predator's.
Mating
Cincelichthys bocourti is a monogamous, biparental substrate spawner. Pairs form and hold a territory, which they defend against intruders with the usual heroine displays — lateral posturing, fin-flaring and jaw contact — intensifying in colour as breeding approaches. Outside of spawning the species is comparatively even-tempered for a fish of its size, but a breeding pair becomes territorial and protective. Courtship centres on selecting and meticulously cleaning a spawning surface together, a shared task that both cements the pair bond and signals readiness; in the wild this is timed to the warm, productive season.
Breeding
The species is an open substrate spawner with biparental care, described in the hobby as a monogamous fish that lays its eggs in the open on a cleaned hard surface. Both parents tend the clutch — fanning and cleaning the eggs, then guarding the wrigglers and, once they are free-swimming, herding the school of fry and defending it from threats. Hobbyist accounts of spawning the 'golden mojarra' (notably in the Cichlid Room Companion literature) describe the familiar Central American pattern: a cleaned stone or firm surface, a clutch of adhesive eggs, hatching within a few days in warm water, and an extended period of joint parental care as the fry grow. Its hard-water origins matter here — successful keeping and breeding are reported to depend on providing the hard, alkaline water of its native lake.
In the aquarium
The chisel-tooth cichlid is kept by Central American cichlid enthusiasts and is regarded as suitable for intermediate aquarists — large and territorial, but less belligerent than many of its relatives. An adult or pair needs a sizeable tank (on the order of 98.5 in of length and several hundred litres) with an open sandy or fine substrate, large rocks and driftwood for cover and grazing surfaces, and robust filtration to cope with a big, vegetation-processing fish. The single most important husbandry point is water chemistry: because the type locality is a large, partly saline lake, this is a hard-water species, and it does best in distinctly hard, alkaline water (high hardness, pH comfortably above 7.5) at around 79–82 °F — soft, acidic water is a mistake with this fish. Diet should be plant-forward to suit its grazing dentition: spirulina- and vegetable-based foods, blanched greens and algae wafers as the base, supplemented with frozen and live invertebrates. Tankmates should be sturdy Central Americans of similar size; while calmer than many guapotes it will still defend a territory, especially when breeding, so it is a fish for the dedicated big-cichlid keeper rather than a community aquarium.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List assesses Cincelichthys bocourti as Near Threatened (assessed 17 June 2019) — the most concerning status in its genus and a reflection of its concentration in a single major lake system. Lake Izabal and the lower Polochic are under intense and growing pressure: nutrient pollution and sedimentation from agriculture (including large-scale oil-palm and other plantations in the Polochic valley), mining activity in the watershed, and the catastrophic spread of invasive aquatic plants and introduced fishes have all degraded the lake in recent years, with episodes of severe water-quality decline and fish die-offs widely reported. Because so much of the species' range is bound up in this one stressed lake, those basin-scale problems translate fairly directly into risk for the fish, which is what lifts it above the Least Concern status of its more widespread relatives. It carries no CITES listing. Maintaining the species ultimately depends on the health of Lake Izabal itself.