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WaterWolves - Exotic, Rare and Predatory Fish Since 1998! _ Old World Cichlids _ Old World Cichlids
Posted by: Norbert May 10 2009, 01:06 AM
Which group of Old World Cichlids do you prefer? Feel free to share why 
-The "Other" category can include Tilapia, Hemichromis, West African Dwarves etc
Posted by: fishing4exotics May 10 2009, 03:44 PM
I've kept, bred and I'm partial to the species that belong to the lake Tanganyikan region. I'm amazed at the diversity of its inhabitants. The beautiful colour, patterns and shapes of some species that rival that of marine animals. I'm filled with wonder as to how, where, why, what niche, have the various species evolved, and adapted to in their environment. I like observing their interesting behaviors. I look forward to learning about newly discovered species. At one point, I had tanks with nothing but Tanganyikan fish.
In the past I've considered the idea of visiting Tanganyika, look around the lake, go to location spots that I've read about and observe species in their native habitat.
Posted by: Marconi May 15 2009, 11:40 PM
Everybody starts with malawi...but I find if your taste becomes refined you eventually end up with Tangs.
Its like wine drinkers who started with white and now only drink red.
Posted by: Norbert May 21 2009, 09:32 PM
I've kept, bred and I'm partial to the species that belong to the lake Tanganyikan region. I'm amazed at the diversity of its inhabitants. The beautiful colour, patterns and shapes of some species that rival that of marine animals. I'm filled with wonder as to how, where, why, what niche, have the various species evolved, and adapted to in their environment. I like observing their interesting behaviors. I look forward to learning about newly discovered species. At one point, I had tanks with nothing but Tanganyikan fish.
In the past I've considered the idea of visiting Tanganyika, look around the lake, go to location spots that I've read about and observe species in their native habitat.
Do you have a favorite species, Perry? Or at least a favorite genus?
Everybody starts with malawi...but I find if your taste becomes refined you eventually end up with Tangs.
Its like wine drinkers who started with white and now only drink red.
I started with Malawi as well Marconi, mbuna of course, moved on to Tanganyikan and dabbled with Victorian, now I'm back to Malawi...I need more tanks
Posted by: fishing4exotics May 22 2009, 12:06 AM
Do you have a favorite species, Perry? Or at least a favorite genus?
I was obsessed with Tropheus. I had several breeding colonies in large tanks. My favorite is Tropheus moori "Ilangi". Their colour is amazing! I had wild caught specimens that had dark blue faces, bright red dorsals, red anal fins and bright yellow bodies. This is a close representation of the "Ilangi" I had, except the bodies on my Tropheus' were completely bright yellow, instead of having any brown colour, and the dorsals were bright red:
I use to do fish runs from the San Francisco Bay Area to LA airport to meet my importer, Russ Utsler, as he received his African shipments. I would just pay him on the spot, took the boxes of fish from him and went right back home.
On my way back home, from one of the SF to LA fish runs, I got a ticket for going 99mph. 
Russ sold me the 1st batch of Zaire blue frontosas (gibberosa) that were collected 12 years ago. They weren't available for over 10 years before that, because of a civil war in Congo/Zaire. I also had several other species of wild caught fish from Russ. Too bad he's not in business anymore. 
Posted by: Norbert Jun 9 2009, 01:55 AM
I was obsessed with Tropheus. I had several breeding colonies in large tanks. My favorite is Tropheus moori "Ilangi". Their colour is amazing! I had wild caught specimens that had dark blue faces, bright red dorsals, red anal fins and bright yellow bodies. This is a close representation of the "Ilangi" I had, except the bodies on my Tropheus' were completely bright yellow, instead of having any brown colour, and the dorsals were bright red:
Beautiful, beautiful fish Perry. I've never kept Tropheus before but have always wanted to. I think the large numbers recommended (and the cost
) to disperse aggression have prevented me from trying them. Maybe someday...I say that alot since I found this site On my way back home, from one of the SF to LA fish runs, I got a ticket for going 99mph.
that ticket had to hurt Starting to see a trend in the favorite region for Old Worlds.
Posted by: joesfish Jun 9 2010, 12:16 AM
Perry, very nice story.
I got to say my favorite are the Frontosa, Tropheus, and Petrochromis. I just can't decide which ones I like more. I love my Yellow Moshi Petrochromis, Tropheus Red Rainbow, Tropheus Ilangi, Tropheus Musanga, Tropheus Ikola, Frontosa Kapampa, Moba, Mpimbwe, Tanzanite, Bismark and Burundi. I also have always hard to have catfish and can't depart with some of my favorites. I really like the Decorus Synodontis because it only gets 12" which is big for a synodontis but small for most cats. The Multipunctatus group I have is cool too and I loved the Syno petricola too.
Do you still have the Ilangi?
Posted by: fishing4exotics Jun 9 2010, 03:14 AM
I lost most of my colonies when the Enron incidents took place. Those blackouts stressed a lot of my Tropheus and I eventually lost most of my stock. Now I just keep a small group of young Ilangi, my son's Tang community tank and my frontosas.
I get in and out of different types of fish, but I like my Tang fish the best.
Posted by: dlp40 Aug 15 2010, 06:49 PM
I have tried them all but i love malawi's. From the little crazy mbuna to the big pred's. You can't go wrong. Plus for my taste, other then tropheus, not too many tangs have colors i like. Front's are blue, shellies are gold and silver, and the trout cichlids are pretty but way too exspensive for my taste. I do however like birchardi's and the gold sided occeliatus shellies. I spelled it wrong sorry. but malawi's are my fav's.
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