102. West Side Story: 5 Real African Cichlids

When you say “African cichlids”, you usually conjure up images of “peacocks” from Lake Malawi. This connotation is reductive because it ignores two facts. 1. Cichlidae is one of the most species diverse families of fishes in the world. 2. Africa is the second largest continent in the world. In this episode of the podcast, the Water Colors team try their best to ignore the African Great Lakes (Lake Malawi, Lake Victoria, and Lake Tanganyika) in order to explore the diversity of cichlids in ecosystems across the entire continent of Africa. You can share photos of your real African cichlids with us on the Water Colors Aquarium Gallery Podcast Listeners Facebook group.

Corrections: – In this episode, we often use the phrase “Rift Lakes” to refer to Lake Malawi, Lake Victoria, and Lake Tanganyika. The “definition” we are using is more colloquial than it is accurate to the conventional geographic designation for lakes within the Rift Valley region of Africa. It might have been more accurate for us to say “African Great Lakes”. – In this episode, Charles said “Rubrolatochromis”, which is a genus that does not exist. We were talking about genera split from Pelvicachromis and he managed to erroneously “upgrade” the species Wallaceochromis rubrolabiatus to the genus level. – In this episode, Ben stated that baking soda (AKA sodium bicarbonate) has a “kpH” of 7.8. He was conflating the concepts pKa reaction of sodium bicarbonate carbonic acid, which have the respective pKa values of 10.3 and 6.4, with the 7.4-7.8 pH range that a sodium bicarbonate system will buffer to.

Addendums: – The genus Haplochromis was originally coined by F.M. Hilgendorf in 1888 in an attempt to start sorting through the “wastebin genus” Chromis. He utilized Haplochromis obliquidens as his type species, but this entire arrangement was thrown into disarray when it was realized that “Chromis” was already in use for genus of small reef fishes, making it’s usage for Pseudocrenilabrinae cichlids a junior homonym. This confusion has resulted in over a century of the taxonomic relations of this clade being redefined multiple times and the relationships between these clades are still misunderstood.

Book Mentioned in this Episode: The Cichlids of Western Africa by Anton Lamboj

Cichlids Mentioned in This Episode: – Discus (Symphysodon spp.) – Ram cichlid (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi) – Freshwater angelfish (Pterophyllum scalare) – Apistogramma spp. – Nanochromis spp. – Common krib (Pelvicachromis pulcher) – Wonderful goby cichlid (Gobiocichla wonderi) – Xystichromis sp. “Kyoga Flameback” – Haplochromis spp. – Aulonocara spp. – Pseudotropheus spp. – Copadichromis borleyi – Pseudocrenilabrus nicholsi – Egyptian/Victorian mouthbrooder (Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor) – Pseudocrenilabrus philander – Silver Katana cichlid (Haplochromis thereuterion) – Sardine cichlids (Cyprichromis spp.) – Malawi shell-dweller (Pseudotropheus lanisticola) – Jewel cichlid (Hemichromis spp.) – Jack Dempsey cichlid (Rocio octofasciata) – Hemichromis cristatus – Hemichromis lifalili – Regani dwarf pike cichlid (Crenicichla regani) – Hemichromis sp. “Moanda” – Black diamond Madagascar cichlid (Paratilapia polleni) – Oscar (Astronotus ocellatus) – Bichard’s slender cichlid (Teleogramma brichardi) – Wallaceochromis spp. – Enigmatochromis lucanusi – Pelvicachromis silviae – Pelvicachromis sacrimontis – Pelvicachromis subocellatus – Nanochromis transvestitus – Nanochromis parilus – Nanochromis splendens – Pindu cichlid (Stomatepia pindu) – Pelvicachromis kribensis “Moliwe” – Soda cichlid (Alcolapia alcalica) – Tilapia cichlids (Oreochromis spp.) – Buffalo-head cichlid (Steatocranus casuarius) – Blue-lipped buffalo-head cichlid (Paragobiocichla irvinei) – African butterfly cichlid (Anomalochromis thomasi)