Dear cichlid friend, As some of you may have seen in the TFH magazine inside front cover March issue, Omega One has now joined our fight in conserving Malawi cichlids by donating to the Fund 25˘ of each package Frozen Cichlid Formula sold!! I’m very grateful to Kelly Randall, the marketing director of Omega Sea, for pursuing this project. So, please, check the frozen food section in your local pet store and help us all preserving Malawi cichlids in their natural habitat! |
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Lake Malawi Last December the Fund transferred $13,465, most of what we had in our coffers, to finance the new boat for the guards and for the fitting of the diesel engine. They subsequently encountered some problems with the fitting and needed outside advice on how to proceed. This has now been solved (hopefully) and they are now back working on it with an anticipated completion 6-8 weeks from now. I have not yet received any update on the placing of demarcation buoys around the Maleri islands, but Dimitri tells me that Matt is very committed to all conservation efforts and is keeping the National Parks patrols up every month. We will have more from him in the next update. Another bit of good news from Malawi is that Larry Johnson is again going to release P. saulosi at Taiwanee Reef with a group of visitors later this year. At the same time they will make a rough inventory of this species at the reef. Lake Tanganyika The breeding station setup in Kipili, Tanzania, at the Lakeshore Lodge is taking shape and Chris Horsfall hopes to have water running in the vats in June when I’ll be there. I have attached a photo of the completed vats that Chris sent me about a month ago. In the meantime he has obtained a solar pump in Dar es Salaam and is currently fitting the pipes and tubes. That is the good news; the bad news is that a German exporter has by now about extirpated the Tanzania Murago Tropheus, one of the species we were hoping to breed in Kipili. I’m planning to visit the site in June and will report on the situation. |
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In the meantime Chris and Louise presented their project of breeding endangered Tanganyika species at a Great Lakes 2 Great Lakes conference in Kigoma last February and impressed the head of Fisheries Development in Tanzania, Hosea Gonza Mbilinyi, so that he issued a statement that the four species they are planning to breed are now officially off limits for exportation. These four species are: Tropheus duboisi “Maswa”, Tropheus moorii “Tanzania Murago”, Ophthalmotilapia boops “Blue Neon”, and Petrochromis sp. ‘red’. We all know that it is not that easy to control exports of fish but at least they managed to get the Tanzanian government on our side regarding conservation. A big THANK YOU to Chris and Louise! More Thank Yous Without the generous donations of many of you, we would have had little or no impact on the preservation and restoration of cichlid habitat. In the last six months three clubs have committed in a grand way to the cichlids’ cause: the Ohio Cichlid Association with a donation of $1250, the Greater Chicago Cichlid Association ($1000), and also the British Cichlid Association with a donation of $785!! Thank you to these clubs and their compassionate members! Also a big thank you to Steve Lundblad of the Wet Spot in Portland, OR, who donated $750, and to Steve Edie, again, who regularly donates his travel reimbursement checks to the Fund. His last two checks together were $936! He’s seriously committed. I also would like to thank a friend of mine in France, Patrick Tawil, who regularly donates the royalties he earns by publishing on cichlidae.com. It adds up: over $640 to date! Thank you, Patrick. |
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Thank you ALL for your concern for the cichlids’ future! Enjoy your cichlids! |
  
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