African Cichlids
Scientific name: Myaka myaka
Habitat: Lake Borombi Mbo, Cameroon
Time at Explorit: less than 1 year

Explorit's African cichlids were donated by an evolutionary biologist who studies cichlids in the wild. The fish given to Explorit hatched from the biologist's private captive collection. There are probably thousands of different species of cichlids. They are of great interest to people who study evolution because of their ability to evolve rapidly. This high rate of speciation makes these fish very well adapted to the many different lakes and rivers throughout Africa. In fact sometimes cichlids living in the same body of water have evolved in a completely different ways, due in part to the many different mini-ecosystems found within a single lake. For example, the same lake might harbor a species of cichlid that is an ambush predator with an elongated head and mouth and another species that crushes snails using its more rounded head.