Every cichlid water
Cichlids live in lakes, rivers, crater pools and soda flats across three continents. This is the map of where — 12 waters built out in depth so far, the rest charted and on the way. Each becomes a full page as it's built.
The Great Rift Lakes of East Africa
Lake Tanganyika
The second-deepest, second-oldest lake on Earth; the most morphologically diverse cichlid flock anywhere.
Lake Malawi
The richest cichlid species flock of any lake — the mbuna and haplochromines, over a permanently anoxic deep.
Lake Victoria
The world's largest tropical lake and its fastest, youngest haplochromine radiation — battered, but recovering.
Lake Kivu
A meromictic Rift lake gas-charged with CO₂ and methane; a small flock of endemic haplochromines in the thin surface layer.
Lake Edward & Lake George
Western Rift lakes on the Uganda–DR Congo border, with their own haplochromine assemblage.
Lake Albert
A shallow Western Rift lake on the Nile, mixing riverine tilapias with rift endemics.
Lake Rukwa
A shallow, alkaline, endorheic lake of dramatic level swings, between Tanganyika and Malawi.
Lake Mweru
A shallow Luapula–Congo lake with a geologically young radiation seeded by hybridisation.
Lake Bangweulu
A vast shallow wetland-lake of the Luapula system, southwest of Tanganyika.
Soda & crater lakes of Africa
Lake Natron & Lake Magadi
Hyper-alkaline soda lakes home to the heat- and salt-tolerant soda cichlids, Alcolapia.
Barombi Mbo (Cameroon)
A volcanic crater lake with its own endemic flock of Coptodon, Sarotherodon, Pungu and Stomatepia.
Lake Bermin (Cameroon)
A tiny crater lake holding a flock of nine endemic Coptodon — sympatric speciation in miniature.
African rivers
The Congo basin
From the lower-river rapids to the Lualaba — rheophilic Lamprologus, Steatocranus, Teleogramma and more.
The Nile system
Tilapias (Oreochromis, Coptodon) and the jewel cichlids, Hemichromis, down the world's longest river.
The Niger & Volta
West African rivers with Tilapia, Hemichromis and Pelvicachromis.
The Zambezi & Okavango
Southern-African rivers and floodplains — Serranochromis, Pseudocrenilabrus, Tilapia.
Madagascar
Madagascar's rivers & lakes
Ancient, deep-branching endemics — Paratilapia, Paretroplus, Ptychochromis — among the most threatened cichlids on Earth.
South America — the Neotropics
The Amazon basin
The great cichlid theatre of the New World — angelfish, discus, Apistogramma, eartheaters and peacock bass.
The Orinoco basin
Llanos rivers and floodplains rich in Geophagus, Mesonauta and dwarf cichlids.
The Rio Negro & blackwaters
Acidic, tannin-stained waters — the heartland of wild discus and many Apistogramma.
The Paraná–La Plata
Southern South America's temperate cichlids — Gymnogeophagus, Australoheros, Cichlasoma.
The Middle East — Levant & the Persian Gulf
Sea of Galilee
The Jordan-Rift lake of Israel — St. Peter's-fish tilapias and Astatotilapia flaviijosephi, the only haplochromine in the Levant.
Hormozgan Coastal Rivers
Iranocichla — the only cichlid genus native to Iran, in the warm coastal streams of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Jordan River & Lake Hula
The river and its drained northern wetlands that link the Levantine cichlids to the African lineages.
North & Central America
Lower Rio Grande
Texas & northeastern Mexico — home to Herichthys cyanoguttatus, the only cichlid native to the United States.
Cuatro Ciénegas
A desert oasis of spring-fed pools with the trophically polymorphic endemic Herichthys minckleyi.
Lake Nicaragua
Central America's largest lake — Midas cichlids (Amphilophus) and the predatory guapotes.
Lake Managua
Xolotlán, draining south to Lake Nicaragua, with its own Amphilophus and Parachromis.
Laguna de Apoyo
A volcanic crater beside Lake Nicaragua holding one of the youngest known cichlid radiations.
Laguna Xiloá & other crater lakes
More Nicaraguan crater lakes with their own endemic Amphilophus species flocks.
Asia
Coastal India & Sri Lanka
Home to Etroplus — the only cichlids native to Asia — in fresh and brackish coastal waters.