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Lake Victoria, and the fish that live there, has an interesting history. I am not going into the long story and cover the millions of years, but in the past a strange thing happened in the lake, and man infringed on the natural state of its inhabitants. Not too surprising really. Anyway, a Nile Perch happened to get away from a commercial hatchery and it grew to 45 feet in length. After it ate three tourist ships.... oh sorry, wrong story. The perch did however get away from a commerical hatchery and they were originally thought to have caused a great deal of damage to the natural inhabitants. Little was really known about Lake Victorian Haplochromis prior to this time and knowledge is really just now being documented. So I guess it is hard to say what effect man has had on the lake in the past. I enjoy the Lake Victorian fish and hope to provide some knowledge through keeping them. I hope you will too.
We have begun to get into the Lake information and "clique". Truth is, this is not a really organized group of savoirs. The best that any of us can hope for, is to ensure the fish survive.
It is my understanding that many of the original fish from the lake have either become "lost" or corrupted to some degree. Why do I say this? Well, for instance, there are at least 5 different wholesalers/distributors we have found that are selling various fish as Haplochromis Red Fin Obliquidens. Trouble is, they are all different in appearance and habits.
At this time, the only way hobbyists can really help, is to form some sort of club/group where people share views and observations about the fish. This is why we started the message board. Join in and start some more discussions about these fish. When we get ahold of a new, undefined, or improperly labeled fish, we need to keep it in a seperate tank and examine its behavior until we can determine what it MIGHT be. Go through the book and see if you can't narrow down the chances, then ask the group for opinions, let's see if we can't help the hobby and keep and breed identified/clean strains of these wonderful fish. If this is what you want to do, email us and let's get started now!
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