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This site is dedicated to aquariums and its purpose is to give some information to other aquarists
and, hopefully, advance the art and science of fish keeping by one small step. This was supposed to be my personal site serving the egoistic need to expose my
achievements, small as they may be, to the internet community. Things didn't turn out that way and I am really happy they
didn't. This site doesn't belong to me anymore. It is a collective work of initially two persons
(now four) aiming at your satisfaction both visually and in terms of its content.
Firstly came Francesco Zezza, from Rome,
a couple of years ago
(April 1999). An experienced Malawi cichlid fan, member of the African Cichlid list and a close
(but distant) friend. We have never met, not till now. But we know each other fairly
well, we share the same views, we care about the same things, we love the same
beauties, we talk to each other every day.
It was only natural that Francesco was to become an integral part of this site, or should I
say, this site was built around the two of us.
Several months later, I met Patrizia
Spinelli. I don't know Patrizia in
person, either. We met during our fishy searches in the net. I saw some shots of her tanks and I immediately
E-mailed her asking for more pictures. She said that she didn't have the time to have her own site though she would like
to. It was amazing ! A skilled professional with some of the best tanks I have come
across, a talented photographer, willing to have a site of her own with no time to do so ! A real bargain for our site. Though not a Malawian like me and
Francesco, she will offer this site the one thing we all seek
: her female approach, full of sensitivity, care and aesthetics. All this is coupled with care for details and love for her
fish.
She is a professional but she acts like a hobbyist. It is this side of her you are to see in this site. Enjoy her work - as we did !
Most of the information included in this site comes from our own experience. This is especially true for the demanding world of Malawi cichlids. Though these species are very hardy, keeping them alive is not out aim. Our aim is to provide them with the best possible care, next to ideal conditions and watch them behaving as naturally as possible. Spawning and breeding them is a must. Not for profit. Just for the pleasure of knowing that we have provided these beauties with the best possible conditions. It is the joy of recreating part of their natural world, a world they have never seen or will never see again.
Whenever another source is used it is clearly indicated and / or a link is provided to the original source. One very general rule of thumb though : The more you read the greater the success. And, there is no other place containing more information than the web. Some of the best sites are listed in the Links section. Most of them include plenty of links themselves.
We hope that, in years to come, you, the visitor - hobbyist, will list this site among the best. This will be an adequate reward for all the painstaking efforts and hundreds (thousands?) of hours that we have devoted on this work. The site is not graphic orientated; our main goal was a wealth of information and first class original pictures.
In September 1999, it was jointly decided that this site needed a new name. The old name didn't reflect its contents so a new, colorful name was to be chosen. It didn't take much to decide that "George J. Reclos~Aquarium Pages"
should be renamed to "Malawi Cichlid
Homepage"
or MCH
for short.
In December 1999, it was decided by George and Francesco that the usual monthly update of both Malawi sections is not possible anymore. The size and complexity of the articles has increased dramatically, so has the need for accompanying photos. These factors
made the one month interval too short. Therefore, starting January 2000 these two Authors will alternatively update their sections. George will update his section in January and come back again in March while Francesco will update his section in February and then in April. Patrizia will update her section as often as she can. This way there will be something new each month. It is quality that counts, not quantity.
In October 2000,
Frank Panis
a fellow hobbyist from Belgium, running his own
website, decided to join MCH and become the fourth author of this site. He
specializes in Malawi Haps and he is bound to add to the content of our site. We
welcome him and we feel that all visitors will benefit from his section - us
included.
In
December 2000, just days before entering 2001, a new "icon" (see top of this
page) has been selected by all of us to represent MCH
from now on. It is an impressive modern painting by Kho, a new
artist from Italy. You can see more of his work here.
In
view of 2001, we decided that it was about time MCH
had its own
domain name and become independent. Therefore as from January 2001, our new URL
is www.MalawiCichlidHomepage.com
. Please update your bookmarks. The old URL will be still valid for six months
till most of our visitors have incorporated this change in their Favorites.
We
would like to express our gratitude to
Aurelian
Tuta, a fellow hobbyist from
Craiowa, Romania, who devoted too much of his time in "transferring"
this site in Microsoft FrontPage2000 format. His step-by-step instructions made
it sound easy, but without his help it wouldn't be possible.
Many
thanks are owed to Maria Spiliotopoulou
who spent hundreds of hours to change the layout of
MCH. While working with her I
really appreciated her efforts and dedication to this task. Perhaps, the
only thing that kept her going, was her true love for this site.
Last
we would like to ask you to take a couple of minutes and sign our Guestbook.
We are extremely interested in your comments. Please let us know what you didn't
like or what you would like to see in this site.
What can you see in this site ?
More than 165 species profiles currently on line !
SITE STATISTICS
And a big THANKS
to all of you who created it !
GEORGE RECLOS' TANKS
with lots of pictures and technical information.
>
Regular visitors check the what's new page for this section!
FRANCESCO ZEZZA'S SECTION
This part contains first hand info on his tanks and fish along with photos and "Fast Fact" sheets for many species.
>
Regular visitors check the what's new
page for this section!
PATRIZIA SPINELLI'S SECTION
A professional - hobbyist. A lady with aesthetics and sensitivity! Not a Malawi fanatic but you must see her work !
>
Regular visitors check the what's new page for this section!
FRANK
PANIS SECTION Frank Panis, a Belgian hobbyist
specializing in Malawi Haps, has joined MCH to share his
experience with you. His section will
be regularly updated.
>
Regular visitors check the what's new
page for this section!
FAREWELL TO DALE PAUTLER
Dale passed away on October 4, 2000. This page is dedicated to his
memory.
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR THE AQUARIST
Glossary & useful Information. The Alpha to Omega list. General information on Fishkeeping; many hints & tips.
SPECIFIC INFORMATION ON MALAWI CICHLIDS. First hand information on keeping Malawi cichlids including information on water chemistry, fish photography, diseases, conditioning, spawning, water changes, KH & pH tables, Temperature conversion tables and formulas. Also includes articles on specific subjects.
INFORMATION INDEX
The
starting point for easy navigation, through the various
topics
information and more than 100 articles.
LINKS to other interesting "fishy" pages. We visited them, enjoyed them and we would like to share them with you. We believe that
MCH now offers
one of the most complete list of links related to Rift Lake Cichlids
(more than 95 links reviewed till now). If it's worth it, you
will probably find a link here.
LINKS TO COMMERCIAL SITES
Some of them have really interesting sites.
PROFESSIONALS
A selection of Greek "fishy" professionals. The
cream of the cream. What do their shops look like? Currently
includes only professionals from Greece but I hope that it will soon
expand.
READING
Brief reviews of books we have read. How much will these books help you? See the relevant
sections (freshwater
fish & plants (32 titles), African
Cichlids (22 titles) and Marine
fish (12 titles)). One of the most complete lists of books around.
Now with photos
of the book covers !
CD-ROM
Read our reviews on cichlid - related CD-ROMs (7 titles to choose
from).
VIDEO
TAPES Reviews on tapes related to African Rift Lake cichlids.
AWARDS
awarded to this site or items contained in it.
PHOTO GALLERY A section with photos from all authors; photos not shown in other sections, or old photos replaced by newer ones. Selected photos of tanks from fellow hobbyists are also shown in this section.
OTHER SPECIES
A new section devoted to species not belonging to
our stock of Malawi cichlids. Includes more cichlids as well as
other freshwater species, tropical marine fish & invertebrates
and (recently) Mediterranean marine species. This section will definitely grow in time so we recommend that you bookmark it.
"Hobbyist Gallery" in
which we will try to show photos and information from selected tanks
housing East African Cichlids all over the world. You can read more
about it here and then take some photos and send them to
us
"Side Effects". Being a cichlid
addict is more serious than you think. You love animals and plants
and this - sometimes - doesn't end with fish keeping. What some of
us keep apart from fish ? You can regularly visit this section to
find more. Not fish - related (apart from the fact that all owners
also own at least one tank !!)
SEARCH
THIS SITE MCH
has become quite large and complex.
Therefore, information needs much longer to be retrieved. With this
new facility, you may click on "Search this Site" at the
bottom of every page and just
type the key word(s) in the opening window. The search will show you
all pages that include the selected key words.
Sign our
GUESTBOOK
and give us your comments. We want to make this site better - your
comments are the only tool we have to do that.
For
an exchange of information on East African Cichlids, join the
List started by the authors of Malawi
Cichlid Homepage. Click here
for the List Policy. You can click on the icon at the bottom of the
page to join.
This site is loaded with pictures and some pages may take a while to download. We believe that it is worthy to wait.
If you want to link back to
us please use the following image: www.MalawiCichlidHomepage.com/images/mch.gif
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