So...I have been catching (in south Florida) lots of Mayan cichlids lately. Not deliberately; they've just been hammering my chrome 110 mm jerkbait. Many are pretty big (up to over a pound) and put up a fight. They are like bream on steroids.  But they have a dramatic color scheme: dark back, laterally they have dark bluish vertical stripes over an orange background, and a red-yellow belly that extends rostrally to an incredible brilliant red-orange chin. Bass probably eat the juveniles, though I have not seen them do so, nor have I seen caught bass bass puke them up.  One could theoretically use them as live bait as they are not a game species.  But I would be more interested in imitating the appearance with an artificial bait.  Right now red craw and perch patterns are the closest, I think, commercially. I could certainly paint a soft swimbait or add a red trailer to a jig, or draw on a crankbait with a sharpie, to make it look Mayan.

Anyway, DOES ANYONE KNOW IF MAYAN CICHLIDS ARE ROUTINELY EATEN BY SO FL BASS?

Bass will eat anything they think might be food. Even if it doesn't closely resemble anything that swims where they live,  Including stuff like plastic worms, and spinnerbaits. If the cichlids are aren't bigger than the bass, and swim in the same waters, they will be eaten.

The single most important food source of bass in Mexico is tilapia, which is a cichlid.

You should throw a few of those in the livewell, bring them home and put them in an aquarium! 

3 hours ago, hawgenvy said:

So...I have been catching (in south Florida) lots of Mayan cichlids lately. Not deliberately; they've just been hammering my chrome 110 mm jerkbait. Many are pretty big (up to over a pound) and put up a fight. They are like bream on steroids.  But they have a dramatic color scheme: dark back, laterally they have dark bluish vertical stripes over an orange background, and a red-yellow belly that extends rostrally to an incredible brilliant red-orange chin. Bass probably eat the juveniles, though I have not seen them do so, nor have I seen caught bass bass puke them up.  One could theoretically use them as live bait as they are not a game species.  But I would be more interested in imitating the appearance with an artificial bait.  Right now red craw and perch patterns are the closest, I think, commercially. I could certainly paint a soft swimbait or add a red trailer to a jig, or draw on a crankbait with a sharpie, to make it look Mayan.

Anyway, DOES ANYONE KNOW IF MAYAN CICHLIDS ARE ROUTINELY EATEN BY SO FL BASS?

Yes bass eat mayan cichlids so it might be a good idea to try a lure that imitates the colors of these fish.

several companies make plastics in a tilapia color - I know I've seen swimbaits by Big Bite Baits in a tilapia pattern.  And as stated previously, tilapia are a cichlid.  I think some of the more gaudy bluegill patterns would also mimic the scheme you're looking for.  Come to think  of it, the Bandit bluegill-colored crank my buddy was throwing yesterday had that blue back and bright red belly you mentioned.

Don't know about cichlids, but they eat tilapia. Snook also love tilapia.  A friend of mine is a fish farmer raising tropical fish for aquariums. He uses mollies and swordtails to catch crappie.

Thanks, guys!

yes

Bass will eat mc's, along with snook and peacock's they LOVE THEM too!! 

Yup and snook like them too 

bass will definitely eat them. snook will destroy them! i call them strawberry daiquiris. they usually don't last long when you drop them near some snook.

Thanks, folks. I've been looking around for lures that kind of look like Mayans. Maybe something striped and red or orange on the bottom would work. Or maybe tossing a red craw-colored squarebill around areas where bass and Mayans coexist might get some extra bass bites.

Would love to catch a big snook on a live Mayan. Bluegills are illegal as bait in Florida, but not Mayans, though.

@hawgenvy I just took this off the FWC website, inregards of using bluegill has bait. 

http://m.myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/regulations/taking-bait/

12 hours ago, BassinLou said:

@hawgenvy I just took this off the FWC website, inregards of using bluegill has bait. 

http://m.myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/regulations/taking-bait/

Wow, thanks! That's exactly the OPPOSITE of what I thought!

8 hours ago, hawgenvy said:

Wow, thanks! That's exactly the OPPOSITE of what I thought!

You're welcome. 

The FWC rule kind of make sense.

They don't want you bringing your non native fish to use as bait and they can't really enforce whether you caught it right then and there and are using it for bait or if you brought it from somewhere else. But at first I was thinking that was just dumb because wouldn't the FWC want those non native fish to get eaten? The bad outweighs the good in this case if they allowed the use of non native fish.

On 12/6/2016 at 10:56 PM, hawgenvy said:

Thanks, folks. I've been looking around for lures that kind of look like Mayans. Maybe something striped and red or orange on the bottom would work. Or maybe tossing a red craw-colored squarebill around areas where bass and Mayans coexist might get some extra bass bites.

Would love to catch a big snook on a live Mayan. Bluegills are illegal as bait in Florida, but not Mayans, though.

You are allowed to fish with bluegills that you catch on hook and line ( it's in the FWC guidelines).If you don't like using livebait you can use bluegill imitating swimbaits or other lures with similar color patterns. 

On 11/25/2016 at 11:47 PM, hawgenvy said:

So...I have been catching (in south Florida) lots of Mayan cichlids lately. Not deliberately; they've just been hammering my chrome 110 mm jerkbait. Many are pretty big (up to over a pound) and put up a fight. They are like bream on steroids.  But they have a dramatic color scheme: dark back, laterally they have dark bluish vertical stripes over an orange background, and a red-yellow belly that extends rostrally to an incredible brilliant red-orange chin. Bass probably eat the juveniles, though I have not seen them do so, nor have I seen caught bass bass puke them up.  One could theoretically use them as live bait as they are not a game species.  But I would be more interested in imitating the appearance with an artificial bait.  Right now red craw and perch patterns are the closest, I think, commercially. I could certainly paint a soft swimbait or add a red trailer to a jig, or draw on a crankbait with a sharpie, to make it look Mayan.

Anyway, DOES ANYONE KNOW IF MAYAN CICHLIDS ARE ROUTINELY EATEN BY SO FL BASS?

On 11/25/2016 at 11:47 PM, hawgenvy said:

So...I have been catching (in south Florida) lots of Mayan cichlids lately. Not deliberately; they've just been hammering my chrome 110 mm jerkbait. Many are pretty big (up to over a pound) and put up a fight. They are like bream on steroids.  But they have a dramatic color scheme: dark back, laterally they have dark bluish vertical stripes over an orange background, and a red-yellow belly that extends rostrally to an incredible brilliant red-orange chin. Bass probably eat the juveniles, though I have not seen them do so, nor have I seen caught bass bass puke them up.  One could theoretically use them as live bait as they are not a game species.  But I would be more interested in imitating the appearance with an artificial bait.  Right now red craw and perch patterns are the closest, I think, commercially. I could certainly paint a soft swimbait or add a red trailer to a jig, or draw on a crankbait with a sharpie, to make it look Mayan.

Anyway, DOES ANYONE KNOW IF MAYAN CICHLIDS ARE ROUTINELY EATEN BY SO FL BASS?

Me and my friends all have caught bass live bait fishing with Mayan chichlids

Savage gear makes a 4” Gill Swimbait in pink, I’ve considered getting it and adding some bars. The peacocks live eating their smaller cousins as well. 

I don't know about the frequency, but if a fish will fit in piscivorous fish's mouth, then it will likely eat it, if it's in the mood to eat.

The FWC is now referring them as "atomic sunfish". Go figure.

Haw, let me tell you a story about bass eating things as a bass will eat anything they think they can swallow, and sometimes things they cannot swallow.

 

Fishing in a cove I noticed an acorn that had fallen on a small boulder. Nothing to be concerned about until I saw a squirrel trying to hop from a low hanging branch to the rock to get the acorn.

 

Since this was entertaining (no bites for about an hour) I watched the squirrel do all types of gymnastics trying to get to the acorn.  Finally, the squirrel jumped from the branch onto the rock and grabbed the acorn. He then proceeded to sit up and eat the acorn.

 

All of a sudden a big bass leaped out of the water, grabbed the squirrel, and took the squirrel with him into the depths.

 

"Now that is just Mother Nature's way of feeding a bass," I thought, until the bass jumped out of the water next to the boulder and spit out another acorn onto the rock.

 

So to answer your query: bass will eat anything they think is food.

The answer is yes, before they get to full size.  After that they have nasty spines that would make them hard for bass to eat.