México, a journey into the world of cichlids

Rezension

von Juan Miguel Artigas Azas, 23-Aug.-2010.

This new DVD by Willem Heijns compiles over fifty hours of underwater filming of cichlids in many Mexican freshwater habitats, from the north of the country to the south east of it. It presents nineteen clips showing a very varied assortment of cichlids and other fishes, many times showing the cichlids in reproduction. The DVD was filmed in the latter part of the 1990’s and early 2000’s. It brought back great memories to me, as I believe I was present when most of those clips were filmed (I was obviously present at El Palmar). At least, I have been fortunate enough to be in all the localities depicted and can talk about the quality of the scenes chosen. The watching of the DVD made me want to let anything I was doing and jump in the car with diving equipment and rush to any of those places (particularly any those that I haven’t been in several years) to spend some hours underwater, observing the wonderful fish fauna so nicely brought up by Willem in this DVD.



From the fry feeding behavior of Herichthys] sp. ‘white labridens’ to the molluscivorous Herichthys minckleyi] substrate diving in Poza de la Becerra in Cuatro Cienegas, searching for snails. Petenia splendida] and Herichthys steindachneri] with fry, which are very rare sightings. The DVD is a fantastic natural history document. Together with the scenes, in my opinion this DVD has one of the best chosen musical tracks to go along with it, which makes a pleasure to observe once and again. Many times wonderful films have been almost ruined by not so nicely chosen music.



The length of each clips could be judged as short (specially for a fish nut like me), but after thinking it over you realize they may actually be close to the perfect length, as you can go through all of the DVD clips in one session without being overwhelmed by it. If there is something I would criticize is the lack of subtitles (at least short duration ones) that tells the viewer, particularly those not experienced with the fish, what species they are watching. But of course, I realize this was a decision made by the author for his own reasons.



A short summary of the DVD can be found on Willem's Facebook page at Willem Heijns's video.

Beschreibung

This DVD contains the compilation of over fifty hours of video material of the cichlids from México. It shows many species in their natural habitat, most of them displaying their characteristic breeding behavior.

The video can be watched as one film (about 50 minutes), but selection of a specific river/lake and watching a videoclip of that particular location is also possible. For every location a list of represented cichlid species is given. Every clip can be watched separately and in doing so the list of species can be studied for as long as one likes. Together with the footage of the underwater habitat this provides for an excellent way of creating a biotope oriented aquarium for cichlids from that area.

Gehalt

Backcover

Willem Heijns has been keeping cichlids since 1975. Over the years he has made many trips to the rivers and lakes of Central American and Mexico. This DVD, with more than 50 minutes of underwater video, is the result of his observations of cichlids in their natural habitat at 19 different locations.

Größe

Fifty minutes film in a DVD in PAL or NTSC format.