Greetings from Kampala

[Shane]

Hello all,
I do not think I have posted here since I was living in Mexico some years ago. Anyway, I am living in Kampala now and still doing a lot of collecting. Of course in my efforts to get at catfishes I seem to catch a lot of cichlids as well. I am hoping members of the forum can help me with some future identification requests.
Here are a couple of recent articles of mine on collecting in Uganda.

Lake Nabugabo
http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... e+Nabugabo

Uganda's Papyrus Swamps
http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... rus+Swamps

I collected these just over a week ago 58km SW of Kampala on the Masaka road not far from Bawama. Best looking local form of this genus I have collected in Africa.
I tried to post some pics but the file sizes were too big.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 26&t=29011

Hola JuanMi, hace un rato que hemos hablado y espero que esteis bien. Extrano mucho la comida Mexicana, la comida de Africa no es tan buena .
-Shane

[Shane]

PS If anyone needs specific Ugandan cichlid species or collecting site photos just let me know and I will try to snap them while I am out and about.
-Shane

[Lisachromis]

I think you should post all sorts of pictures here. I think we're all jealous.

[Dave Schumacher]

I think you should post all sorts of pictures here. I think we're all jealous.

I'll second that!

[Shane]

I would love to, but every time I try to attach photos I get a message that the file is too big.

"The file is too big, maximum allowed size is 256 KiB."

I found this posting
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... aa9981bca0
Looks like this might be a problem with phpBB v 3.0.6

-Shane

[Lisachromis]

If that's a problem, why not upload them to a photo sharing site like photobucket (or other) and post them up that way? I know I would love to see them.

[mapyru]

Hi Shane,

That should be nice to see all this in live situation!
I would be really interesting in seeing which fishes you can still collect from the swamps and lake Victoria around ,
hope you will enjoy a lot your accomodations there, even if not always easy!
-------------------

Have already seen your beautiful collected Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor ssp victoriae


(mis mejores saludos en espanol tambien)
Emilio,
www.haplochromis.org

[Shane]

I would be really interesting in seeing which fishes you can still collect from the swamps and lake Victoria around

Yes, there are many. The problem is, for me, that you end up bringing a bunch home and then have to wait several weeks for them to color up so you can see 1) How many different spp you caught and 2) If it is a sp you have already collected. I have also brought home several fry from the Nile that I have collected between Jinja and Bujagali Falls. In most cases my field identifications were good. In some bad. I am now the proud owner of a 10cm (and growing daily) Tilapia because, when it was 2cm I mistook it for a "Haplochromis."

There is no doubt that the huge papyrus swamps of Uganda are a key refuge for small cichlids that have been driven back from the main lake. The other two things on their side are the masses of Hyacinth, which provide refuge for fry, and the over fishing of the Nile perch.

I suspect that long term we will witness what I call a "seesaw effect." Overfishing of perch and the safe habitat provided by floating vegetation will allow cichlids that had been pushed into the swamps to spread back to the lake. Commercial fishing of Nile perch will decline (it already has) as it becomes less profitable.

With less commercial fishing and more food (small cichlids or ngege) the Nile perch population will rebound. The ngege will be forced back into the swamps, commercial fishing will start back up on a large scale, and eventually the Nile perch population will crash again. The ngege spp left will start to recolonize the lake, commercial fishing will halt, and the entire cycle will start again...

-Shane

[LewC]

From what I understand of the current Hap. repopulation, the species mix at a particular location may be different from that which was present before the Nile Perch explosion. If that is true, then the same thing would probably happen during each succeeding Hap repopulation.

Lew

[mapyru]

Hi Shane and everybody else interested in this post,
---------------------------------------
I just setup here what I can collect as information about population survey around Victoria lake & satellites:
let 's start with the kyoga bassin :

based upon a survey around 1996.1998 this was the species composition; in () number of species -
? more species but unidentified ( or not specify)

kyoga and satellites Nawampasa(28)/Gigati(23)/Kawi(20)/Nyaguo(16)/Agu(17)/Lemwa(12)
distributed between :
Astatoreochromis (1) alluaudi
Astatotilapia (10) "fattooth" ,"miniblack", ?
Gaurochromis (1) ?
Haplochromis (2) lividus , ?
Lipochromis (7) microdon , ?
Paralabidochromis (5) "blackpara", ?
Prognathochromis (8) pellegrini , stilleto , "shovelmouth", argenteus, ?
Ptyochromis (1) ?
Pyxichromis (1) orthostoma
Xystichromis(2) phytophagus, ?
Yssichromis (2) ?
( data based on scientist report from Dismas Mbabazi, R.Ogutu-Ohwayo S.B.Wandera and Y.Kiziito)

Hey, thank you for your positive mind , regarding the future of haplochromis species, it is true that it is better , to have some recolonisation with some hybrids, that to loose everything ( I think hybridisation is part of the normal behaviour of cichlids evolution, even if now amplified by water turbidity and restrictive available habitats)

Emilio,
http://www.haplochromis.org

[Mark Smith]

Hi Shane

I hope you can figure out how to post your photos here, as we are all interested in seeing more images from that part of Africa.

[mapyru]

Here the Haplochromis species reported to be collected in Nabugado Lake and described by Greenwood ( already a long time ago ) --

Haplochromis velifer
Haplochromis simpsoni
Haplochromis annectidens
Haplochromis beadlei
Haplochromis Venator

perhaps introduced by accident at the same time of young Tilapias

Astatotilapia nubilus
Pseudocrenilabrus multicolor spp victoriae
Astatoreochromis alluaudi

See you,
Emilio,
http://www.haplochromis.org

[Shane]

Thank you all for your comments and information.

From what I understand of the current Hap. repopulation, the species mix at a particular location may be different from that which was present before the Nile Perch explosion. If that is true, then the same thing would probably happen during each succeeding Hap repopulation.

I agree. Depending on how each species fairs during their "recession" from the lake will determine how well they are poised as a group to take advantage of areas that can be recolonized when conditions permit.

The hybrid question raised by Emilio is a good one and I admit that I do not have my head fully around this issue. By the taxonomic standards used for catfishes (my own specialty) I am not sure that there are more than a few dozen valid cichlid spp in and around the lake (and I am a splitter!). I think we are seeing something akin to the issue with Belo Monte and its Hypancistrus. That is, an environment in the "pea soup" start up phase of making new and distinct spp. Lake Victoria is very young (the latest studies showing it was a dry plain just 10,000 years ago) and the cichlids that have found their way there have not had time to "sort out" the species question. I suspect that without human intervention, and given another 10,000 years, the cichlids would sort themselves out into easily identifiable species with distinct habitats and physical adaptations.

I still believe this will happen, but with the introduction of the perch, overfishing, introduction of non-native plants, etc the final mix will be far less rich (speciose) than it would have been otherwise.

-Shane

[mapyru]

Shane,

I you have the chance to travel to the Kyoga zone
this is the list of fishes we commonly report in the hobby as coming from this area!

Haplochromini - Kyoga
---------------------------
Haplochromis latifasciatus
Haplochromis sp. "all red Kyoga - Nawampassa"
Haplochromis sp. "golden duck"
Haplochromis sp. "red fin piebald"
Haplochromis sp. "ruby green"
Haplochromis sp. "silver stilleto"
Haplochromis sp. "torpedo kribensis"
Neochromis sp. "madonna"
Pyxichromis orthostoma


In Europe we don't have a lot of these species , which are more distributed in the USA, I think!
--------------------------
Success in your work,

[Shane]

Many thanks Mapyru. I have not yet made it to Kyoga, but it is high on my list. Right now it is the rainy season so all collecting is on hold.
-Shane