Index and photo albums

Keeping cichlids

Breeding cichlids

Photographing fishes

Links

About This Site
What is this site?	Why this site?	Scientific names	Where to find more

What is this site?	This personal web site, which is part of describes some of the cichlid fishes which I have kept since 1974. The site is owned by me, not sponsored by anyone, and contains no adverts. I have produced this website to provide information and to share my enthusiasm for these truly interesting fishes. All the opinions in this site are mine and, naturally, relate to my experience with cichlids. However, cichlids are individuals much like dogs and you must view the inofrmation contained in this site as a guide only. All the photographs on these pages (unless stated otherwise) were taken by me, so please ask permission if you would like to use them.
	I started with the usual community fish but soon graduated to specialising in cichlids. This was partly because I found them more interesting and partly because they seemed to suit my water supply better. I lived in a hard water area which made many fishes, such as neons, unhappy. Curiously, despite this hard water I had little trouble persuading Heros severus (Severum) to breed. They come from tributaries of the Amazon and, according to the books, need softwater.
Why this site?	The main aim of this site is to show some of my cichlid photographs. Some of them show fish breeding, others show them fighting (a favourite hobby of cichlids) and some show them posing. Being large fish, generally, cichlids make good photographic subjects. When in a calm mood they also move quite slowly which helps a great deal with framing a shot. However, anyone who has tried photographing fish will know that it is more difficult than it looks to get a really good shot. When they are doing something interesting the camera is packed in a bag in the spare room, when the camera is on a tripod in front of the tank they (the fish) want to sulk behind a stone, when everything appears ok the photograph turns out to be blurred, or under exposed or... I'm sure you know the feeling. I hope you enjoy reading some of the information contained within these pages, and in particular I hope that you will view my photograph collection. I have made thumb-print photos which load quite quickly, but by clicking on one of the thumbprints a larger, better quality photograph will be downloaded. By publishing this web site I hope to encourage fishkeepers to try these wonderful fish; they really are interesting and very rewarding. If you haven't strayed from community fish then why not give the cichlids a go?
Scientific names	You may have already noticed that I have used 'scientific' names only occasionally on this web site. This is not because I am unaware of their existence, but because I am not certain that they (the scientists) have stopped changing them! In my years of fishkeeping the scientific names have changed so often, particularly for cichlids, that I have got hopelessly confused. Unless I was really up-to-date, which I'm not, I would prefer to steer clear. However, a Jack Dempsey of this new millenium is the same Jack dempsey as when it was first named. I believe that it is called Cichlasoma octofasciatum at present; but it has been named Cichlasoma biocellatum (2 eye-spots), Heros octofasciatum, and Cichlasoma hedricki. You may know of a few more! One of my first breeding successes was an African cichlid called Haplochromis burtoni. It then became Hemihaplochromis burtoni, Chromis burtoni and now it appears to Astatotilapia burtoni. You see that the Burtoni part has remained the same during this time so that's why I will use common names on this site. Of course, you may say that the common names also change, and you'd be correct. Luckily for me the fishes in this site seems to have pretty well known common names. I have used the scientific names where I need to compare otherwise similar fish.
Where can I find out more?	I have included a links page which will point you in the direction of some good sites which deal with cichlids. However, if you wish to know more about Central American cichlids then you will soon find by searching the web that there are very few sites which deal with these fish. African cichlids, however, are documented well in web sites. In particular the cichlids of the rift valley lakes (that is Lakes Malawi, Victoria and Tanganika) are very well covered. This is also the case for books where there are any number of books dealing with Malawi cichlids but very few for central America. This is certainly the case in the UK, and I guess that this is so in the rest of the world. In the UK I can thoroughly recommend a series of small, inexpensive books, called "An Interpet Guide to..." These great little books cover central American and south American cichlids separately. They also have titles which cover American and African catfishes separately. In the UK these slim pocket books can be found in nearly all pet outlets and have around 80 well organised pages with great photographs. I'm probably preaching to the converted here, I expect you are probably nodding your head and looking at a few on your bookshelf right now.