Over the years, Pyxichromis orthostoma, Astatotilapia nubila, Yssichromis pyrrhocephalus, Haplochromis sp. ‘finebar scraper’, Haplochromis sp. ‘Kenya gold’, Xystichromis sp. ‘flameback’, Lipochromis sp. ‘Matumbi hunter’, Haplochromis sp. ‘Ruby Green’, Enterochromis paropius, Paralabidochromis chromogynos, Haplochromis sp. ‘red tail sheller’, Lithochromis rufus, Paralabidochromis sp. ‘red fin piebald’, Astatotilapia brownae, Astatotilapia latifasciata, Pundamilia nyererei, and Astatotilapia sp. ‘tomato’, that I can remember. These are the ones that we at least had reasonable success with. The Paralabidochromis sp. ‘red fin piebald’ are probably the meanest, nastiest cichlids I’ve ever dealt with, and I’ve kept jags, red devils, midas, and Ampilophus zaliosus. If the red fin piebalds were anywhere near the size of those CA cichlids, the jags and red devils wouldn’t stand a chance. They took all my knowledge and skill to manage and keep them from killing each other before they bred. They’re fairly common in the hobby, but I don’t recommend them for anyone without a fair amount of experience with Africans.
Back in the late 1980s I acquired Haplochromis nigricans and Astatotilapia martini , but that was near enough the beginning of the Nile perch explosion that nobody realized the effect it would have on cichlid populations. And there was no internet to educate the average hobbyist or layman about the danger to the lake even if it had been foreseen. Nobody was worried about conservation because the fish would always be there for collection. I bred these for a while, but passed of my stock after a couple of generations when I got bored. A. martini may even be extinct now; I know it was Critically Endangered when I looked a good while back, and I’ve not even seen it offered in the hobby since. If it is in the hobby, it’s probably only being bred by the well known names in the hobby and their friends. I'm not even sure what the valid name for H. nigricans is ybecause every time I research that I end up in a confusing loop of names and references, but I don't think that it's extinct, just probably renamed. Like I said, I wasn't too worried about it because I "knew" I'd always be able to acquire more. If i would have known what I know now, I would have better appreciated the opportunity at the time.
WYite
As for me, most of the mutations I've seen over the years were in rift valley cichlids, and most were detrimental and led to the fish being culled. In some cases I culled the entire batch and tried to switch the breeding pairs around. With some of the rarer species, especially vickies, culling an entire batch hurt.
