Cichlid eBook -Ad Konings Book

[Ged]

I have been sitting on the train reading Ad Konings book, The Cichlids of Lake Malawi National Park that has recently been released on iTunes. I have found it very informative.

The book is broken up into

The Lake

The Cichlids

The Park's Geography

Feeding Strategies

Breeding Strategies

The Cichlids Species in the Park

Fish Other Than Cichlids

Underwater Exploration

The section on feeding behaviours of cichlids features accompanying videos to demonstrate these in action. The pick of the them is one on Sciaenochromis fryeri.

A description of the contents of the video is below.

Sciaenochromis fryeri feeds on very small fishes and is specialized on juveniles of non-mbuna. Typically Sciaenochromis fryeri swims at a steady pace over the substrate, either pure rocks or rocks and sand, and halts at strategic points when it notices one or more about-one-inch-large juveniles of P. taeniolatus or of similar species. Instead of immediately pursuing the small fish it tries, little by little, to get closer to the prey without alarming it. Then follows a most interesting part because S. fryeri starts rocking back and forth like it is an herbivorous mbuna feeding from the aufwuchs! With each dip S. fryeri moves a bit closer to the prey fish. When the prey fish remains confident in its position and when S. fryeri has closed in far enough, a sudden strike sideward may secure the prey between the jaws of this deceiving piscivore. At the end there is clip of a mbuna feeding on the aufwuchs, a technique Sciaenochromis fryeri imitates.

[RonnyM]

I'm loving how some of the fish books are starting to do the e-book thing

I have his tropheus book and love it! The videos are awesome and something you don't get on the hard copies and it's just so convenient to have multiple books on one little iPad

[myster619]

Someone should do an updated book properly on American cichlids.