Cichlidae family
The origin of Cichlids family is very old, dating from before the continent’s split. It contains over 1000 species of fish, with different behavior, body shape and colors. The fish are spread over large tropical and subtropical large area, avoiding the cold and temperate areas. So you can find Cichlids over Africa, some areas in Small Asia, south coasts of India, Sri Lanka, South and Central America. There are some geographical areas where the Cichlids are grouped in a large number. We can enumerate the big lakes from East of Africa: Malawi, Victoria, Tanganika, Congo River area, the tropical area of West Africa and Congo to Nigeria. In South America these groups can be found in Amazon River area and in Orinoco River area. Practically, in Africa, the Cichlids can be found everywhere, even in Madagascar.
From the feeding point of view, Cichlids prefer the bottom of the water because here they can find mosquito or other larva, hidden in the deposed mud under the leaves. Theserva represents their main category of food. If you are interested on the way they find their food, you can find detailed info at the Symphysodon discus chapter.From the reproduction point of view, they also prefer the bottom of the water because there they can find flat rocks on which they spawn. Regardless of the way they hatch their eggs, in the mouth or normally, the spawning always takes place on flat rock or on plants with flat leaves. Cichlidae fish have a much evolved way of spawning, that’s why they look for the safest place where to do it, or they dig up holes in the ground. For spawning, they prefer places with clean and calm water. Some Cichlids look for sunny areas in order to help the hatching. Also, in clean water, the fry can find small foods and protection.
From the hatching point of view, there are 2 kinds of Cichlids:
- Cichlids which hatch their eggs in the mouth
- Cichlids with normal hatching, on the flat plant or rock where the parents spawned.
The Hatching is strictly protected by the parents.
From the coloration point of view, Cichlids have varied colors and drawings. So some species are rich colored and some have poor colors, some have very complicated drawings and some have just a few uncolored spots or lines. The colors and lines can change from a second to another, depending on the feeling of the fish. This way, the transversal lines can appear or disappear (for Discus). In the first weeks, the offspring is colored different than the parents; some have lateral signalization spots, maybe in order to be recognized easier by the parents. In nature, this fact can save them from the bigger fish, because they can black out. Some Chiclids change their colors few times till they grow up. The definitive colors and drawing comes only when they are sexually mature. Sometimes the colors are so different than the parent’s that a beginner breeder can’t even find out the specie of a fish. The fish have different colors and drawings depending on the different situations:
- for impressing the female
- for threatening
- for fighting
- for spawn care
- for reproduction care
A wired thing is that a defeated male can take the colors of a female. The coloration from the reproduction period is usually different than any other period, some new colors can appear. The male colors are different than the female’s, but there are some exception: scalars and discuses.