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My friend's amazing cichlid aquarium with more than 50 colourful African Malawi Cichlids! This video includes feeding of the fish and some great underwater footage of the 500 liter fishtank. Subscribe to our channel for more great videos: Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Perciformes. Cichlids are members of a suborder known as Labroidei, along with the wrasses (Labridae), damselfishes (Pomacentridae), and surfperches (Embiotocidae). This family is both large and diverse. At least 1,650 species have been scientifically described, making it one of the largest vertebrate families. New species are discovered annually, and many species remain undescribed. The actual number of species is therefore unknown, with estimates varying between 2,000 and 3,000. Many cichlids, particularly tilapia, are important food fishes, while others, such as the Cichla species, are valued game fish. The family also includes many popular freshwater aquarium fish kept by hobbyists, including the angelfish, oscars, and discus. Cichlids have the largest number of endangered species among vertebrate families, most in the haplochromine group. Cichlids are particularly well known for having evolved rapidly into a large number of closely related but morphologically diverse species within large lakes, particularly Tanganyika, Victoria, Malawi, and Edward. Their diversity in the African Great Lakes is important for the study of speciation in evolution. Many cichlids introduced into waters outside of their natural range have become nuisances. Cichlids span a wide range of body sizes, from species as small as 2.5 cm ( in) in length (e.g., female Neolamprologus multifasciatus) to much larger species approaching 1 m (3.3 ft) in length (Boulengerochromis and Cichla). As a group, cichlids exhibit a similar diversity of body shapes, ranging from strongly laterally compressed species (such as Altolamprologus, Pterophyllum, and Symphysodon) to species that are cylindrical and highly elongated (such as Julidochromis, Teleogramma, Teleocichla, Crenicichla, and Gobiocichla). Generally, however, cichlids tend to be of medium size, ovate in shape, and slightly laterally compressed, and generally similar to the North American sunfishes in morphology, behavior, and ecology. Cichlids share a single key trait: the fusion of the lower pharyngeal bones into a single tooth-bearing structure. A complex set of muscles allows the upper and lower pharyngeal bones to be used as a second set of jaws for processing food, allowing a division of labor between the “true jaws“ (mandibles) and the “pharyngeal jaws“. Cichlids are efficient and often highly specialized feeders that capture and process a very wide variety of food items. This is assumed to be one reason why they are so diverse. Cichlids are one of the largest vertebrate families in the world. They are most diverse in Africa and South America. Africa alone is estimated to host at least 1,600 species. Central America and Mexico have about 120 species, as far north as the Rio Grande in southern Texas. Madagascar has its own distinctive species (Katria, Oxylapia, Paratilapia, Paretroplus, Ptychochromis, and Ptychochromoides), only distantly related to those on the African mainland. Native cichlids are largely absent in Asia, except for 9 species in Israel, Lebanon, and Syria (Astatotilapia flaviijosephi, Oreochromis aureus, O. niloticus, Sarotherodon galilaeus, Coptodon zillii, and Tristramella spp.), two in Iran (Iranocichla), and three in India and Sri Lanka (Etroplus and Pseudetroplus). If disregarding Trinidad and Tobago (where the few native cichlids are members of genera that are widespread in the South American mainland), the three species from the genus Nandopsis are the only cichlids from the Antilles in the Caribbean, specifically Cuba and Hispaniola. Europe, Australia, Antarctica, and North America north of the Rio Grande drainage have no native cichlids, although in Florida, Mexico, Japan and northern Australia, feral populations of cichlids have become established as exotics. Although most cichlids are found at relatively shallow depths, several exceptions do exist. The deepest known occurrence are Trematocara at more than 300 m (980 ft) below the surface in Lake Tanganyika. Others found in relatively deep waters include species such as Alticorpus macrocleithrum and Pallidochromis tokolosh down to 150 m (490 ft) below the surface in Lake Malawi,[32][33] and the whitish (nonpigmented) and blind Lamprologus lethops, which is believed to live as deep as 160 m (520 ft) below the surface in the Congo River.
