SUCCESS THROUGH DIVERSITY AND CARVING OUT A NICHE: THE EXAMPLE OF CICHLIDS
One of the most diverse of families in the Animal Kingdom is the family of Cichlids fishes. There are estimated to be 2600 species of Cichlids, and each year more are discovered.Each of the narrow , deep lakes of the African Rift Valley (lakes Malawi, Tanganyika and Nyasa),contain more than a thousand species of Cichlids. There are also Cichlids in South America and a few species in Asia. Through ev olutionary adaptation, each species carves out a niche for itself in the micro-ecosystem that it occupies.. Thus species of many shapes, colors, kinds of diet and mating behavior have evolved to suit the characteristics of each niche in the ecosystem. Fast-flowing/slow-flowing waters, acidic,alkaline, brackish, environments with many predators, low-oxygen etc there will be a Cichlid that is able to thrive. You might find it interesting to know that the Discus and the Angel Fish despite their very different shapes, belong to the Cichlid family. So is the common Tilapia t...