Cichlinae is a subfamily of South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

n fishes in the cichlid family. They are predatory and relatively elongated in shape. Of the three genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 in the subfamily, some species of Cichla reach almost 1 metres (3.3 ft) in length, making them by far the largest cichlids of the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

, and among the largest cichlids anywhere. In contrast, Teleocichla are among the smallest cichlids of the Americas, and most species only reach around 6 centimetres (2.4 in) in length.