Greg Steeves writes about the incandescent “blood-throat” cichlid from Lake Fwa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Thoracochromis brauschi. This rare and desirable fish, only one of few endemic cichlid species from the lake, has been imported only a few times owing to the instability of the region that has kept many collectors and exporters from entering this area of Africa. A recent such importation was described by Lucanus (2014 CN April). In this article Greg shares here his successful approach to maintaining and spawning this gem.
For New World aficionados, Darrell Ullisch likewise details his success raising and ultimately breeding the “Stone Carrier”, Retroculus lapidifer. Quite the achievement! In the interests of full disclosure Darrell lays out his ultimately successful path to success with these rare and difficult fish sharing his missteps on the way to finally producing fry. It’s a great tale! And a really great aquaristic achievement!
Ad Konings reviews the systematics and biology of the Goby Cichlid Tanganicodus irsacae from Lake Tanganyika which has a wide distribution and is found at many places in the northern two thirds of the lake. The systematic relationships of these various populations/forms as probed via DNA analysis indicates it is likely that Tanganicodus has interbred with Eretmodus at various places in the lake, probably giving rise to forms now classified as Spathodus, and that the Tanganyika goby cichlids might share a common ancestor with the Orthochromis species found in rivers surrounding the lake – an as yet unresolved tale of serial genetic hybridizations/introgressions. Interesting stuff!
Jeffrey McCrary updates us on the status of the ‘Midas cichlids’ of Lake Apoyo, Nicaragua, highlighting the Apoyo Shore cichlid Amphilophus flaveolus. There are five species found in this Nicaraguan crater lake: A. astorquii; A. chancho; A. globosus; A. supericilius, and the subject of the article, A. flaveolus. These species were recently described in 2008 and 2010 and several have made it into the aquarium trade today. Jeffrey shares his natural history observations of A. flaveolus in the lake.
Closing out this month’s issue, Oliver Lucanus shares suggestions for creating a South American cichlid community tank based on his experiences and observations as collector and importer. Don Danko reviews the newly-published book by Ad Konings: “The Cichlids of Lake Malawi National Park”. Finally, Laif DeMason caps off this edition with his regular feature, “What’s New”.
Enjoy your cichlids!
