This October issue of Cichlid News presents a wide variety of articles and cichlids. Our friend from Mexico, Juan Miguel Artigas Azas writes about Parachromis friedrichsthalii. Its large size, attractive coloration, and aggressive nature make this species a favorite with Central American cichlid aficionados with large tanks and a hankering for a nifty ‘personality’ fish that interacts with its owner.
Dr. Paul V. Loiselle introduces us to a four-inch dwarf tilapia from Lake Ejagham in Cameroon (Africa). Lake Ejagham is a solution basin that formed during the last Ice Age. A species flock of endemic tilapiines inhabit the lake including four Tilapia species and two Sarotherodon species, S. lamprechti and S. knauerae, the latter the subject of his review.
Willem Heijns continues his review (Part 1: CN July 2016) of the recent revision of Central American cichlids by Oldrich Rican and associates. In the first part of his review, Heijns discussed how these authors created a robust and stable phylogenetic tree for heroine cichlids. In this second part, he shows how Rican et al. (2016) apply morphology to diagnose the genera of heroine cichlids on that tree using only external characters to recognize genera and assign species to them.
Ad Konings discusses the tangled identities of a small complex of sand-pit brooding Lamprologines that includes Lepidiolamprologus pleuromaculatus, L. boulengeri, L. hecqui, and several other as yet probably undescribed forms whose potential relatedness to other species of this complex are being debated based on their morphology and reproductive behavior.
Ad also updates us on the work being supported by the Stuart M. Grant Cichlid Conservation Fund in Lake Malawi, and the recent news is not good. Because fisherman have been overfishing Lake Malawi for 30 years, stocks of fish have experienced a sharp decline. Conservation efforts including an attempt at demarcating a ‘No-Fishing Zone’ with anchored buoys has sadly met with little success so far as the fishermen remove the buoys. It’s a sad story detailed here: 2 steps forward, 1 step back.
Laif DeMason closes with his usual “What’s New”. Wishing everyone a great autumn as our attention moves from outside back inside and we spend increasing time at fish meetings and auctions, and with our fish indoors. From all of us at Cichlid News, enjoy your autumn and your Cichlids!
