I remember the excitement as new species flooded on from Lake Malawi, and aquarists became aware of the diversity of these incredible little (ish) fish.
Then, predictably, we kept them badly, hybridized the bejeebers out of them by introducing fish that would never meet in nature in confined spaces, and populated the hobby's stores with 'mixed Malawi" tanks. It took us very little time to toss them into a blender and homogenize much of that diversity so we'd not see it again, and then to lose interest in the group of fish. The same species and local form would be sold under ten different names, and fish would be crossed willy nilly as people decided to improve them, resolutely moving away from the natural diversity that made them so interesting to begin with. Ah, people...
Meanwhile, a similar species flock of less colourful Cichlids from a different lineage in Lake Mweru has hardly been looked at, because they don't have the colours....
