African Cichlids

There are many websites on the internet that cater to Cichlids.  This likely due to the same set of reasons that make cichlids such popular fish.  Namely, they are very colorful, easy to keep, easy to breed, and also among the more intelligent fish on the planet.  Still with the vast variety of cichlids available, and more becoming available, it is paramount to have a good reference in order to be able to take the best care possible of these fish. If you are keeping African Cichlids from any of the big 3 lakes, perhaps your first stop on the internet should be "African Cichlids"

The amount of information on this site is staggering quite frankly.  For each of the 3 lakes there are 30+ fish listed.  For each fish listed there are a series of photographs and a lengthy description that would be considered a full-featured article on most sites.  In addition to this great wealth of information, there are perhaps another 50 articles available for your continued education.  The information is very good and clear, it is also the only place I've seen most of it on the internet.  From a content standpoint, this site is as good as it gets.

My typical question in regards to this is "how would the hobby cope if this site did not exist?"  I hate to think of such a case in regards to this website.  It provides so much good information free of charge, it would be a shame to lose it.  I can only assume that the value of the site will continue to grow as it adds more information about the hundreds of cichlids that live in the great lakes of Africa.  This site is a keystone of the hobby on the internet.

The look and feel of the site is very neat.  It is easy to determine where the navigation is, and it does not require hours to find the information you are looking for due to the clean layout.  I did drop the score in this category just a tiny bit for a couple of reasons.  First, as you navigate through the site, you will find that the main navigation menu changes and is not consistent, making it difficult to get to some areas of the site from other areas.  (For example, the main navigation in the "articles" section has 7 links, whereas the main navigation on the home page has 11 links)  The other problem I believe people will encounter is that some of the main links, such as "forum" & "your pix" will actually take people off this site to another site.  While that in itself is not bad, it is more difficult to get back than it is to get there.

I've long used and watched this site, and believe it to be a strong standout of what websites can and should be.  If you are looking into getting some African Cichlids I recommend stopping buy.  If you have already purchased some African Cichlids, I'm sure you've probably already gone by the site at least once before, but it's always worth another look!