Pittsburg Oct 25 / africans

[RuevenM at aol_com]

Hi All,

     I have to agree with Bob Goldstein here. Rift Lake cichlids are pretty 
boring once you get past the color. They were something else back in the late 
60's and 70's when they first came in on a commercially available scale, but, 
boy, did they get boring fast. Now "Julies" are nice and the Lamps, but 
where's the challenge? I think East African Lake Cichlids dumbed down the 
whole fishbreeding side of the hobby. Anyone with a pair of Rift Lake 
Cichlids, two tanks, tap water and a can of cheap flake food could breed 
fish. They destroyed the devotion and commitment the art of breeding and 
raising fish requires. I think the hobby is only now beginning to recover 
from their 'get rich quick" onslaught. To notice the difference in the hobby 
before the Rift Lakes opened up, one only has to pick up a few issues of old 
hobby magazines from the 50's backwards. There are so many fascinating 
articles about so many varied species of fish and home hobby projects that 
the world of exotic aquarium fishes seems boundless. Rift Lake Cichlids were 
like a military march that drowned out the quieter grace notes of the old 
"problem fishes." I would much rather visit a tetra, betta, apisto, killie, 
barb, rasbora, livebearer breeder than a Rift Lake keeper any day.
      What's funny is the legendary firm "Aquarium Hamburg" and its always 
enterprising owner Walther Griem (Hyphessobrycon griemi) -- the firm that 
invented the international tropical fish import business and provided so many 
of the first wild and tank raised killies from the late 20's until the 50's 
in Germany and America -- was also the firm that opened Lake Malawi and (I 
think) Tanganyika in the late 50's. (AH may have been working with Brichard 
on Tanganyika but I don't think so.) They had tried before WW II but for 
obvious reasons failed. I think they got one shipment out of Tanganyika in 
1939. So the firm that made the "problem fishes" hobby was also responsible 
for the flood of cichlids that drowned it for 3 decades.
     I am glad that the hobby is beginning to focus on the West African Dwarf 
Cichlids again as they are gorgeous and challenging -- maybe too challenging.
    I too have a soft spot for the plain little forgotten guys. I am trying 
to acquire the old roundtail paradise fish (M. chinensis) that hasn't been 
seen in the USA since probably before WW II and I am also trying to establish 
a colony of Phalloceros caudimaculatus reticulatus -- the little gold black 
spotted guppy-like livebearer of the Innes days. It has remained popular in 
Germany but seems lost in America.
    At an early AKA Convention in Los Angeles (1964), the legendary 
breeder/photographer Gene Wolfsheimer presented a slide show/talk on the 
small "problem fishes." Gene stunned the killie guys there by saying that 
most tetras were a far greater challenge to breed and raise than almost all 
killies. After trying to breed Sailfin Tetras (Crenuchus spirulus) for 3 
years and achieving total failure -- I agree.
     

Robert
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