African Cichlids
Although the term African Cichlids would seem to refer to any fish that originate from the continent of Africa, the term is used mainly to refer to those cichlid species indigenous to only three particular lakes.These are Lake Malawi, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. All three are rift lakes where they are closed off and isolated from the rest of the world. Water runs into them, but then is trapped in the lake and cannot exit.
Lake Malawi (or Lake Nyassa)
Taken as a group, the African Cichlids that developed in the rift lake Malawi are some of the most brightly coloured and active fish available in the hobby.
Their colourations and patterns are as close to the colours found in marine reef environments as is possible in a freshwater fish tank. For the most part the fish are very hardy and usually easy to maintain.
In addition, they rarely need any special care to get them to spawn in the aquarium where they are kept.
The main lake where species have been identified and provided to the aquarium hobby is Lake Malawi or Lake Nyassa. The name has been in dispute for many years.
The country of Malawi was the earliest exporter of the stunning species found in its waters, and it is best known by fish keepers as Lake Malawi because of this. All other bordering countries, and many map makers, prefer to use the Lake Nyassa denotation.
Since it is a rift lake, it has a very short underwater living zone for most of the shore dwelling species to inhabit, many of the areas are often very rocky and rapidly falls off into a very deep centre.
There are other sections which are wide open with only a few aquatic plants. The range of bio-topes collected in this lake is astounding. This wide diversity has created a fertile location for the great variations in the life found there, and the incredible speciation of the fish that call Lake Malawi home.
This is the second deepest lake in Africa and is very long and thin. It is one of Africa's Great Lakes and is the home of over 1000 species of cichlid.
The unique conditions in the lake, the huge variance in underwater habitats and the massive food supply that grows in it has led to incredible specializations and differentiation of niches within the lake.
The result has been the wide number of unique African cichlid species found nowhere else in the world. With such wide bio-diversity, the government of Mozambique declared it a reserve in June of 2011. What this will mean to the aquarium hobbyist has yet to be established.
By far the greatest majority of African Cichlids have their unique origins in Lake Malawi. The geography of the lake kept the cichlids captive in the rift lake and they developed and speciated throughout almost every imaginable niche.
There is an abundance of food available which also allowed such powerful exploitation of the habit(s) by all the fish. Although not unique, Lake Malawi cichlids have the most different species that have developed mouth brooding as their major way of spawning and caring fro their young.
As a general case, the male will fertilize the eggs as they are produced by the female. Then the female will pick them up in her mouth and hold them there as they mature from the fertilized egg and hatch into fry.
A mouth brooding female may not eat for over three weeks as she cares for the egg and subsequent fry. Once they are large enough to survive on their own, they are usually released into as safe a place as possible.
For most of the species, these are complex rock formations that offer small holes, crevices and caves where the babies are able to escape from any larger adults looking for an easy meal. With a carefully planned rock background, these natural hiding spots can be readily duplicated in the home aquarium.
One of the most fascinating aspects of keeping mouth brooding African cichlids is the ability for many generations of fish can live together.
A well developed aquascape, with plenty of rocks and places to hide can easily have three or four generations of a species living in harmony in the fish tank.
Mouth brooders will protect their young until they are old enough and large enough to fend for themselves, In turn they will spawn and generation after generation is added to the aquarium.
