| Greetings. I hope everyone enjoyed their summer activities and
are now ready to get back to some serious cichlids. Remember a few
issues back when I jumped the gun by selecting a species for the Mystery
Fish whose description had not yet been published? Well, maybe
I should do that more often, as soon after I admitted my faux pas, Randall
Kohn came forward and volunteered to tell us all everything we might need
to know about Etia nguti, this — until now — virtually unknown little
cichlid from West Africa. Thanks, Randall, for bailing me out!
Elsewhere in the issue, we continue with an essentially all-African issue
(sorry, Neotropical buffs, but I promise we’ve got some good stuff coming
for you next issue), Ad Konings discusses the open-water planktivores of
Lake Malawi — known collectively as utaka — as exemplified by a particularly
diverse group of species found at one locale in the lake. In addition
to being fabulous aquarium species, this group is of critical economic
importance as a food source in the lake. Also from Malawi, first-time
author Larry Caraballo boosts the rep of a relative newcomer to the hobby,
Cynotilapia
afra “Cobue”, another plankton-feeder, but this time an mbuna species,
from the lake. Moving on to Lake Tanganyika, we visit the opposite
ends of the spectrum of so-called shell-dwelling species. First,
Eric Genevelle describes the life history of Lamprologus callipterus,
the largest member (indeed, adult males couldn’t begin to get inside a
shell!) of this group; then, Georg Zurlo does the same for the smallest
members, sibling species Lamprologus multifasciatus and L. similis.
Finally, we hop to Madagascar for Sonia Guinane’s account of the current
status of populations of the genus Ptychochromis, including her
own experiences with keeping these interesting fishes. Wind it up
with an all-new What’s New and we’ve got a fall issue. See you next
year! |
