Even though I am fascinated by planted aquaria I have always had a soft corner for cichlids. My wife and children too love cichlids what with having kept Red parrots in our drawing room show tank for a few years. The cichlids made way for the planted aquaria as time went by.

My interest in keeping cichlids was renewed when I had to go on a business trip to the USA last year and I decided on something rare – Lake Tanganyika Cichlids. These were never seen with aquarists in India. I returned from the USA with Julidochromis transcriptus, Neolamprologus brichardi, Neolamprologus leleupii, Tropheus moori “bemba” and Altolamprologus calvus ‘pearly white’. I introduced them to a tank which was set up with a lot of rocks and was happy. Alas one morning I found every single one of them dead. This was devastating. I introduced a couple of platies into the same tank after removing the dead fish and without changing water to check on any possible cause for the deaths. The platies lived in the same water for over a month.

A bit later I found Julidochromis regani and introduced a dozen of them to this same tank and managed to get Neolamprologus brichardi again. The brichardi's this time around settled down and as usual went on a production spree. Soon enough this 3 x 2 x 2 feet aquarium proved too small.