Whats the deal with Malawi Lake

[Sunpoe]

Name a lake that isen't being taken over by something.

Humans will be humans I guess.

 

[Jesse]

I have heard that one day it will only house Nile perch

That's already happened to Lake Victoria. Hopefully not to Malawi or Tanganyika. These are some of the largest FW lakes in the world:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world's_largest_lakes

 

[cockroach]

tanganyika is starting to use the nile perch they have as a food fish. so the numbers must be pretty darn high

 

[santoury]

I didn't see Darwin's Nightmare, but I have the book Darwin's DreamPond - it's about cichlid evolution in Lake Victoria - they have evolved at a very, very rapid rate, but unfortunately the Nile Perch loves them all. The Nile Perch in L. Victoria have even started to have major die-offs AND resorted to feeding mainly on each other... Didn't know Tanganyika was headed down that ugly path... but appears so...

This is one of the main reasons I've taken upon the task of trying a captive breeding program for Protopterids - those lakes are becoming wastelands, especially with the "fish farming"

 

[African_Fever]

Tanganyika is NOT being taken over by the Nile Perch. They have had Lates spp. in the lake since it's inception (or very near), so the fish are already adapted to it and therefore know how to avoid it.

The Nile Perch was introduced by the government in the '50s as a food source for the people around the lake with no one thinking about the disaster it would create for the native fishes.

But, on the up side, the fish that do remain in Lake Victoria seem to be showing the most speciation ever, due the extreme pressures on them by the Nile Perch (Lates niloticus).