This July issue is chock-a-block filled with a wide range of interesting articles. Thomas Andersen writes about some lesser-known Tropheus moorii variants from Tanzania. During a recent trip to Lake Tanganyika, he was able to observe several of them. Read about and view them in his article.
Oliver Lucanus shares his experience with Africa’s smallest cichlid, Nanochromis minor. With a total length of just over 1.25 inches (3.2 cm) for the males and around 1 inch (2.5 cm) for females, only Apistogramma minima from the Orinoco drainage in Venezuela is smaller!
Greg Steeves writes about one of the “arrow-head” cichlids of Lake Victoria, Yssichromis sp. ‘blue tipped’. Yssichromis species were abundant in Lake Victoria until the late 1970s when the Nile Perch (Lates niloticus) took a strong hold in the lake. Greg shares his experiences in maintaining and spawning this scarce beauty.
Hot off the presses, Willem Heijns summarizes the recent publication (April 2016) of an extensive revision of Central American cichlids by Oldrich Rican. The systematics and classification of Heroine cichlids has long been plagued by controversy and instability caused by the different approaches taken to build phylogenetic trees. This recent publication by Rican and co-workers attempts to put to rest this nomenclatural instability.
Ola Svensson describes laboratory experiences with a self-fertilizing hermaphroditic Lake Victoria hybrid cichlid. While carrying out crosses aimed at unraveling the link between the orange blotch (OB) system and sex-determination in Lake Victoria cichlids, Ola and Alan Smith produced offspring from a cross between a female Pundamilia pundamilia and an OB Neochromis omnicaeruleus male. When the offspring were raised separately in isolation, one of them released viable fry on “her” own. This unprecedented occurrence of “selfing” in a cichlid was confirmed by genetic testing. Fascinating!
Speaking of “hot off the presses”, Ad Konings has recently published a 5th edition of his seminal book Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat. It’s bigger, it’s better: Pam Chin weighs in with her review. Dr. Tim Hovanec writes about grainfree and gluten-free foods for cichlids. Finally, Laif DeMason closes with his regular “What’s New”. Enjoy your summer and your cichlids! Hope to see you in Cincinnati!
Enjoy your cichlids!
