| Hello and welcome to our spring issue which I hope helps you to shake
off the doldrums of the long winter. Perfect time to revive your
interests in cichlids. And we have a tantalizing palette to offer
you to stimulate your appetite. To begin, once again the intrepid
Ad Konings has returned from one of his frequent sojourns to Africa with
new scoop, this time on the cichlids of a previously poorly-known reef
along the northwestern shoreline of Lake Malawi. Here the cichlid
fauna is distinguished by the prevalence of mbuna species in which the
males share a common (yellow) breeding color; how do the females sort out
all these choices? Another puzzle for us to ponder (though the females
seem to do just fine). Then to re-ignite your “nesting” instincts,
we serve up “how to” reports on three disparate cichlids from Panama, Lake
Tanganyika, and Brazil, each of which offers special challenges to the
serious cichlidophile. Then to continue a series begun in the last
issue, Nick James provides more information on the cichlids of southwestern
Africa, this time reporting on his efforts to set up and breed the Namib
River bream, Thoracochromis buysi, a delightful find we can anticipate
having in our tanks very soon. And finally there’s more for South
American fanatics, as a group of Uruguayan hobbyists introduce themselves
(again in the first of a series of articles) with a tale of their exploits
collecting in one of the major drainages of northeastern Uruguay, home
of many cichlid treasures. And as always, don’t forget to check out
Laif DeMason’s What’s New pictorial.
In closing, don’t forget to check out our web-site (www.cichlidnews.com)
where you’ll find lots of good stuff, including information on special
promotions and updates on current happenings in the magazine (as well as
capsule summaries of all back issues). And take note that you can
now submit your Mystery Fish entries via e-mail. So give it a look.
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