Michael Fierce's Reviews > The Most Complete Colored Lexicon of Cichlids: Every Known Cichlid Illustrated in Color

This is the best book on cichlids ever! Mainly, for me, because it has a huge section on Mbuna, Afrian cichlids from Lake Malawi, Africa's third largest lake.

Written, put together, and largely photographed by Dr. Herbert R. Axelrod. Axelrod is the leading researcher of Mbuna, having journeyed there years before Lake Malawi cichlids became popular in today's aquarium market.

I first read a little aquarium book by him called 'Mbuna' when I was probably 11 years old that I still have, though worn and dog-eared from having read it dozens of times. It was fascinating, telling of Axelrod's real-life adventures through Africa to reach the spectacular Lake Malawi - a lake of living jewels. This was later expanded into African Cichlids of Lakes, Malawi, and Tanganyika, containing a more thorough account of his travels, scientific research, and photos, some of which are compiled into this more complete Lexicon here.

The pictures are to die for.

Personally, I feel that most saltwater fish don't hold a candle to the flaming jewels that are Lake Malawi's freshwater mbuna. They are complex, enigmatic things of beauty, each with their own very unique personalities and behaviors, qualities lacking from many of the saltwater or freshwater aquarium fish you find today at the pet store.

When I was a tween in the late 70's, early 80's, my dad used to take me to this really cool fish store in Oakland, CA, called, Joe's. Joe had more fish tanks than most of today's stores and I remember it as one of the most fun places I got to go to as a kid.

I got to pick from an amazing array of fish! The one that caught my eye was the vibrantly colored pseudotropheus elongatus aka an Elongate Mbuna pictured above, and whose scientific genus name would later be determined as pseudotropheus elongatus mpanga. The next fish I selected was a melanachromis auratus - incorrectly classified back in those days as a pseudotropheus auratus and, though I don't remember it's more common name, I called him Prince Auratus. I also rounded up two pseudotropheus zebras, one a Cobalt Blue I called Sky Captain, the other was orange gold but monikered a Red Zebra in the 90's and I believe is now scientifically classified metriaclima estherae. I named her Goldie (I think after Goldie Hawn). The surprising thing is that they all came straight from Lake Malawi and were not fish-farmed. Nowadays, it's probably better to purchase them fish-farmed if for one reason only: to ensure that the lake isn't overfished, which has been a problem come of late.

The Melanochromis Auratus started out with female colorizations as all young do, as seen in the 1st photo here, and later transformed into the darker reversed colorizations of a male, as seen in the 2nd.



Pictured below are the Pseudotropheus Zebra Cobalt Blue and the Pseudotropheus Zebra Red Zebra - though orange(..?) ~ the genus extension of which evolved into Metriaclima Estherae.




Although the elongatus was a little smaller than the others, it quickly became the king of the tank, which I know now is mostly becase it's species has sharper teeth and quicker movements. It was a striking pearlescent blue with deep black zebratic lines and a black face. Cichlids, like us, have two nostrils, not two on each side like most fish, and with their observant personalities and behaviors can occasionally remind us of ourselves in very special moments. I named my pseudotropheus elongatus, B.B. King - being that he was black and blue and the king of the tank for all the years I had him. And named, of course, after the legendary blues singer-songwriter, of the same name.


Pseudotropheus Elongatus Mpanga

Although my mom helped me take care of my 20 and 30 gallon aquariums, we weren't fish experts. I was young & dumB and didn't know a lot about how to take care of them then, losing several beautiful Mbuna along the way. But, not B.B. King. He outlasted all the sicknesses, like ich, and the bacteria from the foreign rocks I put in there (before I knew better), fought rivalries with fish twice his size, even having been ganged up on once or twice by two at the same time. He outlasted them all. He would shake and vibrate like mad when he would fight - and also when showing off his stuff to females he was interested in - and his whole face and zebratic lines would become a rich, vibrant, ink black. This book shows many similarly strikingly-colored fish that can be hard to come by. If you know fish, you know a lot of that has to do with their environment. The more compatible it is for them, the more their colors will show for it.

B.B. King never succumbed to sicknesses or rivals.

These cichlids are called Mbuna for a reason. Mbuna translates as 'rock fish'. They pick up mouthfuls of rock to secure their territories and carve their homes into a fashion that most interests the female they have their eye on. B.B. King was too fanciful one day while I was at school. While moving mouthfuls of rock, a hollowed-out ceramic tree he loved to build under crushed him perfectly sideways into the side of the glass. You would say, "it's just a fish", and you are free to think that. But, I was sad for so long over that little guy. He was perfect and awoke a love for fish and animals that would grow and shape me into who I am today.

I don't know how many interested readers can afford this book. I've seen it go for as high as $550 but a more perfect photographed book of fish I have never seen.

Just perfect.

Like my fish, B.B. King.