The magic of cichlids lies not only in their vast diversity resulting from the variety of their shapes, colour variations and sizes but also – or maybe I should rather say first and foremost – from their extremely interesting breeding and social behaviour. (...) Cichlids (Cichlidae) are found in Africa, America, Asia and Madagascar. (...) Some of them are just few centimetres long (like Neolamprologus ultifasciatus), others reach the length of as much as a 1 metre – like Boulengerochromis that lives in Lake Tanganyika and can weight as much as 5 kg.
Little Tanganyika tank: how to set up a small aquarium for endemic African cichlids - Michał Pręgowski;
Cichlids from Lake Tanganyika can be a fascinating option for an aquarium hobbyist that lost interest in the most popular fish. (...) If you decide to keep Lake Tanganyika cichlids in an aquarium you just need to get a 40-litre tank. Such a tank will easily house a pair or a group consisting of one male and a few females of some smaller fish – e. g. from Lamprologus genus. However, the range of possibilities significantly increases if you have enough room to set up a bit bigger tank (e. g. 60 or 100 l). Such tanks can host not only fish from Lamprologus genus but also those from Chalinochromis genus, Neolamprologus genus – a small group of daffodil cichlids (Neolamprologus pulcher) or their close relatives. The possibilities are innumerable.
Biotopes of the Lake Malawi Part III. Open waters - Mateusz Topolanek;
Open waters of the Lake Malawi are still a very mysterious area. This part of the lake is definitely the largest and – what follows – the least explored of all.
Wetland at home – an introduction to the paludarium DIY - dr inż. Aleksandra Kwaśniak;
Paludarium can easily be described as a different dimension of an aquarium hobby, a means of introducing a small piece of tropical forest to your everyday life. (...) The term „paludarium” derives from the Latin word palus, meaning “a swamp”. Paludarium is supposed to combine water, wetland and humid land environment in one tank.
Caridina cf. babaulti shrimp and its relatives – beautiful and colourful aquarium animals and troubles connected with their taxonomy - Werner Klotz;
In many aquaria green dwarf cichlids from Caridina genus beautifully contrast with the red coloured shrimps from Crystal Red variety or orange ones from Red Fire variety. (...) Those animals have been sold in many aquarium shops as well as by the breeders under the Caridina „ceylanica” name. (...) Any species named „Caridina ceylanica” is not known to the science at all. However, a shrimp species of a similar name Caridina zeylanica lives in the brackish waters of Sri Lanka.
The European tree frog - dr Adam Adamski;
The European tree frog (Hyla arborea) is the only one representative of the cosmopolitan Hyla genus living in Poland. The genus encompasses 350 species and belongs to the order of the tail-less amphibians (Anura) and class of amphibians (Amphibia).
Hermitage – a crab in a dry tank - Marcin Szmel;
A few months ago I have decided to do something that I don’t really like to do, the thing I avoid and dissuade from everyone as well as definitely regard as negative. I bought animals I knew practically nothing about and anything I knew was irrelevant and insignificant in terms of taking care of them.
I’ll cast sheep’s eyes at you. A snake with huge eyes - Witold Borkowski;
I’ll devote this article to an interesting representative of the family of colubrids (Colubridae) that is not such popular as other reptiles belonging to this taxon, especially those from Elaphe genus. The big-eyed beauty I’m writing about is the Trans-Pecos rat snake: Bogertophis subocularis.
A rocky tank - Sławomir Siudakiewicz;
Many people can’t imagine having an aquarium devoid of plants. However, tanks of this type have recently been gaining popularity owing to the attractiveness of fish from Lake Tanganyika. (...) I’ll describe Julidochromis transcriptus fish, commonly named mask julie, found in western part of Lake Tanganyika. Rocky littoral is its natural habitat.
Decorative plant aquaria. Part VI. Is the way to building underwater garden really that difficult? First days after setting up a tank - Arkadiusz Siurda;
As you probably perfectly remember, in the previous part of this article series I have discussed the process of setting up a tank in detail. We have managed to aquascape our model aquarium, plant it with vegetation, fill it with water and start all the equipment that is supposed to monitor the water parameters and maintain them at a proper level.
Dwarf pencilfish (Nannostomus marginatus) – small is beautiful - dr Hubert Zientek;
Dwarf pencilfish belongs to the Lebiasinidae family and is closely related to characids. These pencilfish are very beautiful and small. They exhibit specific but not very excessive environmental requirements.
Barbus hulstaerti – African butterfly barb - Olivier Lucanus;
Probably no-one has ever imagined that before we could start importing these beautiful fish again we would have to wait for decades. At last, since spring 2006, it is possible to purchase Barbus hulstaerti again. One can buy the fish in big quantities because an animal collector from Kinshasa offers them together with other fish from Cuvette region in Congo.
The basics of the proper pufferfish feeding - Zbigniew Strzelecki;
From time to time, you can find very interesting fish from Tetraodontidae family in pet shops. The basic data on their appearance and behaviour can be found in aquarium magazines, books and on-line resources. The most popular pufferfish (and the easiest available ones) are green coloured puffers, that is Tetraodon nigroviridis (green spotted puffer) and Tetraodon fluviatilis (green puffer). In Polish they are both known as green puffers because they were previously regarded as fish belonging to one taxon and being colour variations within one species.
35th anniversary of Poecilia Reticulata Club (1972-2007) - Jerzy Kaszuba;
Time goes by so fast! It’s been already five years since I’ve published my article on 30th anniversary of Poecilia Reticulata Club in 38th issue of „Nasze Akwarium” (November 2002). In 2007 we had another round anniversary to celebrate: 35th.