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Hi All,
I just watched a fabulous Documentary
last night on Lake Victoria, it was called
"Darwins Nightmare" directed by Hubert Sauper (2004).
It was about how Lake Victoria used to be full
of all kinds of interesting and colorful Cichlids,
the like of which many of you on here will know
much better than I, but about 40 years ago, someone
released a bucket full of Nile Perch into the lake.
Now, the Nile Perch have almost entirely wiped out
all the cichlids in the lake, including those that feed
off the algae off the bottom of the lake. Algae is now blooming, the water conditions have deteriorated, and
the Nile Perch is Flourishing.
It is interesting as well, because Nile Perch is an exported delicacy fish which is fished by the locals who live in the area surrounding the lake. However, they only make the equivalent of $1 USD a day for their work, and many die due to crocodile attacks while they are diving.
Not just this- but the fish are the ONLY work in the area, and the only other work is prostitution. The pilots who fly the fish out to places like Russia and the UK often solicit the prostitutes- many of which have Aids/HIV.
It painted a pretty gloomy picture, but was incredibly enlightening and well done.
I had no idea about the plight of Lake Victoria's Cichlid populations, and hope that many of you are breeding them, seeings it seems none will be left in their wild habitat soon if the Nile Perch has anything to say about it.
Check it out if you can- very well done film, I would highly recommend it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424024/

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Hmm... let's get every species possible breeding in captivity, Rotinone the lake, then put the native fish back ...what?...it wouldn't work?...

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It's a really pity that all those fish died because of a stupid human desicion.


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