Editing Cichlid (section)

===Lake Victoria===
{{Main|Lake Victoria#Cichlid fish}}
[[File:Haplochromis thereuterion.jpg|thumb|''[[Haplochromis]] thereuterion'' has declined, but still survives in low numbers.<ref>{{Cite iucn |author1=Witte, F. |author2=de&nbsp;Zeeuw, M.P. |author3=Brooks, E. |year = 2010 | title = ''Haplochromis thereuterion'' | volume = 2010 | page = e.T185857A8492470 | doi = 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-3.RLTS.T185857A8492470.en }}</ref>]]

Because of the introduced [[Nile perch]] (''Lates niloticus''), [[Nile tilapia]] (''Oreochromis niloticus''), and [[water hyacinth]], [[deforestation]] that led to water [[siltation]], and [[overfishing]], many Lake Victoria cichlid species have become extinct or been drastically reduced. By around 1980, lake fisheries yielded only 1% cichlids, a drastic decline from 80% in earlier years.<ref name="Barlow2000"/>

By far the largest Lake Victoria group is the haplochromine cichlids, with more than 500 species, but at least 200 of these (about 40%) have become extinct,<ref name=DeWeerdt2004>{{cite news |last1=Deweerdt |first1=Sarah |title=Dark secret of the lake |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18124365-300-dark-secret-of-the-lake/ |work=New Scientist |date=28 February 2004 }}</ref><ref name=Lowe2009>{{cite journal |last1=Lowe-McConnell |first1=Rosemary |title=Fisheries and Cichlid Evolution in the African Great Lakes: Progress and Problems |journal=Freshwater Reviews |date=December 2009 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=131–151 |doi=10.1608/frj-2.2.2 |s2cid=54011001 }}</ref><ref name=Rijssel2013>{{cite journal |last1=van Rijssel |first1=Jacco C. |last2=Witte |first2=Frans |title=Adaptive responses in resurgent Lake Victoria cichlids over the past 30 years |journal=Evolutionary Ecology |date=March 2013 |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=253–267 |doi=10.1007/s10682-012-9596-9 |bibcode=2013EvEco..27..253V |s2cid=2291741 }}</ref> and many others are seriously threatened.<ref name=Fiedler1998>{{cite book |editor1=Fiedler, P.L. |editor2=Kareiva, P.M. |year=1998 |title=Conservation Biology: For the coming decade |edition=2nd |pages=209–210 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0412096617}}</ref> Initially it was feared that the percentage of extinct species was even higher,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Goldschmidt |first1=Tijs |last2=Witte |first2=Frans |last3=Wanink |first3=Jan |title=Cascading Effects of the Introduced Nile Perch on the Detritivorous/Phytoplanktivorous Species in the Sublittoral Areas of Lake Victoria |journal=Conservation Biology |date=September 1993 |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=686–700 |doi=10.1046/j.1523-1739.1993.07030686.x |bibcode=1993ConBi...7..686G |s2cid=39341574 |url=http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1a6d/6d92438f01af8b9fa7f01fc9be4b92af020c.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190219194240/http://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1a6d/6d92438f01af8b9fa7f01fc9be4b92af020c.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-02-19 }}</ref> but some species have been rediscovered after the Nile perch started to decline in the 1990s.<ref name=Lowe2009/><ref name=IUCNef>IUCN Red Lists: [http://www.iucnredlist.org/initiatives/freshwater/eastafrica/geographicpatternsea Geographic Patterns]. Eastern Africa. Retrieved 25 March 2017.</ref> Some species have survived in nearby small satellite lakes,<ref name=IUCNef/> or in refugia among rocks or [[papyrus sedge]]s (protecting them from the Nile perch),<ref name=Chapman1996>{{cite journal |last1=Chapman |first1=Lauren J. |last2=Chapman |first2=Colin A. |last3=Chandler |first3=Mark |title=Wetland ecotones as refugia for endangered fishes |journal=Biological Conservation |date=December 1996 |volume=78 |issue=3 |pages=263–270 |doi=10.1016/s0006-3207(96)00030-4 |bibcode=1996BCons..78..263C |citeseerx=10.1.1.689.2625 }}</ref> or have adapted to the human-induced changes in the lake itself.<ref name=Lowe2009/><ref name=Rijssel2013/> The species were often specialists and these were not affected to the same extent. For example, the [[piscivorous]] haplochromines were particularly hard hit with a high number of extinctions,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McGee |first1=M. D. |last2=Borstein |first2=S. R. |last3=Neches |first3=R. Y. |last4=Buescher |first4=H. H. |last5=Seehausen |first5=O. |last6=Wainwright |first6=P. C. |title=A pharyngeal jaw evolutionary innovation facilitated extinction in Lake Victoria cichlids |journal=Science |date=27 November 2015 |volume=350 |issue=6264 |pages=1077–1079 |doi=10.1126/science.aab0800 |pmid=26612951 |bibcode=2015Sci...350.1077M |doi-access=free }}</ref> while the [[Planktivore|zooplanktivorous]] haplochromines reached densities in 2001 that were similar to before the drastic decline, although consisting of fewer species and with some changes in their ecology.<ref name=Lowe2009/>