Species that are considered uncertain risk need a more in-depth assessment beyond the Risk Summary to better define the species’ risk to U.S. environments.
Hemichromis elongatus is a cichlid native to southwestern Africa. It has established outside of its native range in Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Hawaii. This fish is in the aquarium trade. Climate match with the contiguous United States is medium, with highest matches in the desert southwest and peninsular Florida. There is information suggesting a history of invasiveness, including one peer-reviewed scientific study and one graduate thesis suggesting impacts on native invertebrate communities. However, these studies have only demonstrated impacts in situations where H. elongatus was part of a group of nonnative species present, and the extent to which H. elongatus specifically contributed to impacts is unclear. Certainty of this assessment is low due to much of the information on impacts being broad or speculative. Overall risk for Hemichromis elongatus is uncertain.
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Uncertain Risk
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