The size difference between wild caught fish and captive grown fish is more complex. The 1972 publication, The Cichlid Fishes of the Great Lakes of Africa, provides the first and most thorough analysis of size and growth rate of cichlid fishes from the fishery perspective. In addition to food availability, predation, diseases, fishery and other human and natural factors can influence the growth rate and maximum size of fishes in the wild and in captivity. Nile perch and catfish predate on haplochromine fish, and Africans eat haplochromine fish whole, often in a soup or cooked over charcoal or use as bait for Nile perch. The largest captive grown cichlids are not necessarily found in average home aquariums, but commonly observed in giant public aquarium or fish ponds.
11" Wild Caught C. moorii
- Thread starter RD.
- Start date
So which is it? lol
Beyond just a few decades of personally keeping fish from this area, my info and comments here are also based on the personal observations shared of someone who lived, and worked, on Lake Malawi. Not some T FH publication from 1972. I have some of those old TFH and Tetra publications as well. Some of the old science and commentary does not hold up with what we now know today. I’m not even sure what your point is/was? lol
The C. moorii in this thread was measured @ 11” when collected. It went to Japan due the fact that Stuart’s Japanese customers paid the most for top notch, or rare specimens. as reported by the person who worked on site for Stuart, at Lake Malawi . End of story.
This is not uncommon in hobbyist circles, to those who sell hobbyist fish. My friend in town who bought and sold Asian aros reported the same thing, as did an associate of mine yrs ago, who was part owner of Asian aro farm in Singapore. The best fish, always, went to Japanese or Chinese customers. Always. Simple math - $$$$$$$ talks.
No need to keep pointing out how wrong published info can be. As I said the size thing was not based on one published info, but collaborated by reports by many fish collectors thereafter. I also visited many public aquariums, not just in US, but also in Canada, Japan, China, Thailand, Mexico and Colombia where I saw 2 ft Oscar and 3 ft Dovii that I didn’t expect to be possible. Small haplochromine cichlid can reach full and monster size in average home aquarium, but giant cichlid like Oscar and Dovii need pubic aquarium size to reach potential monster size. A 2 ft Frontosa with overhang hump I saw in the now closed National Aquaurium in Washington DC was 25 year old, as I was told. Whether it is from home or public aquarium, there is no contradiction to the norm of finding monster size cichlid in aquarium than in the wild.
