The Journal of the American Cichlid Association.
Published here with the author's permission.
Introduction
I can hear the groans already. Who, in their right mind, would keep pike cichlids? For those with big tanks and a taste for goldfish-gulpers, Crenicichla species are just the thing. But forget pikes in any but the rowdiest tanks. And certainly no one would waste the time, space and food bill on spawning these fishes. For one thing, what would you do with all the offspring?
I must confess to dabbling with these fish sporadically in the past. I'd buy a bunch of inexpensive who-zats and raise them up, only to bring them to auction or my local retailer before they matured and spawned. So, I never really learned much about them, but always thought that pike cichlids would be my next serious stop after I tired of Geophagines. That time is now at hand. With the appearance of Stawikowski and Werner's (1988) book in this country, American cichlid hobbyist got their first look at the splendor and diversity that is the genus Crenicichla, with well over 50 described species. The authors devote 53 of 281 pages to pike cichlids alone! I regret that I can't read German fluently, but the 50+ photos speak for themselves: pike cichlids are the new wave of the Neotropical future. Activities of exporters and importers bear this out.
This past year has seen the influx of a large number of species, many from the Rio Tocantins/Rio Xingu area along with the magnificent Loricariid catfish from this area. To be sure, some of these species are extremely belligerent eating machines, but many are not. And those that are, usually compensate for the lack of manners with sheer beauty. I believe pike cichlids have gotten a bad rap for many years and I hope to convince you in this article that members of the speciose genus Crenicichla are interesting and beautiful additions to the neotropical cichlid community.
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