Rheoheros lentiginosus is a colorful cichlid species mainly inhabiting clear water lotic habitats of the Grijalva-Usumacinta drainage in Mexico and Guatemala, where it has specialized in feeding on aquatic invertebrates. In his article, Cichlid News regular Juan Miguel Artigas Azas talks about the distribution, habitat, natural history, aquarium keeping, and taxonomy of this exceedingly-interesting and beautiful species.
There is no rocky coast in Lake Tanganyika which does not harbor a Tropheus species—there are at least nine species known in the genus with four of them showing great geographical variability. The oldest member of that genus is Tropheus duboisi which graces this month’s cover. Ad Konings introduces us to our beautiful ‘cover fish’.
Lake Barombi ba Kotto is a small shallow crater lake located within Cameroon’s Volcanic Zone. One of the cichlids to be found there is Coptodon kottae, a mid-sized tilapia. While this species has been known to science for 115 years, its history as an aquarium fish spans a considerably shorter time interval. The cichlid hobby owes the first availability of this rare and endangered species to importer Oliver Lucanus, who brought in a shipment of fish from Barombi ba Kotto in 2004. Paul Loiselle introduces us to this interesting, rare, and beautiful tilapia.
Steindachner, in 1875, established the South American cichlid genus Dicrossus as a monotypic genus for Dicrossus maculatus. Others since have regarded this genus as a synonym of Crenicara. In 1990, Kullander pointed out that Dicrossus and Crenicara were distinct enough to be treated as separate taxa. Dicrossus is currently populated by four other species collectively known as ‘Checkerboard Cichlids’. They are: filamentosus, foirni, warzeli, and, most recently (2008) gladicauda, the subject of this article by Wolfgang Staeck. As it is only sporadically imported and rarely bred in the aquarium, this cichlid is a highly desirable species for dwarf cichlid enthusiasts.
Among the 90 described Crenicichla species, few are odder than C. macrophthalma, the type species of the genus. This species is so unusual, that there is no other species in the genus resembling it. While five species groups can be distinguished in Crenicichla, C. macrophthalma remains alone, on a separate branch, and closest to the C. reticulata group (C. jegui, C. reticulata). Oliver Lucanus introduces us to this very interesting South American pike cichlid.
Be safe, be healthy, and enjoy your cichlids!
