Aquarium

The cichlids patrol their 48”x18”x18” tank and though this country has been officially metric since April Fool’s day, 1975, I still measure fish and tanks in inches, feet, ounces, pounds and gallons. A mix of African cichlids, from lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, but tanks are the only world they’ve known. Cichlids are of interest to me because of their diversity, they're the fish equivalent of Galapagos finches. But I really keep them because their bright colours and constant motion especially at feeding time provides a brief respite from the humdrum. Each species more or less keeps to themselves, establishing ever shifting territories in the nooks and crannies of the rock wall I built, that runs through the middle of the tank. There is a balance of density and species, which I never quite manage to maintain and as they mature, intra and interspecific aggression becomes a factor and every so often, I’ll find a beat-up loser floating at the top of the tank. But other times they breed successfully and if I separate the mouthbrooding female early enough, I can raise another generation of fry.