Collecting sites and data on Ghana Cichlids

[fisheads]

I am hoping that someone on the forum can help me on this. I am planning on organising some collecting trips and 3rd party collecting in the country of Ghana. I have found little information about collecting trips in Ghana or if there is even a company that is commercially exporting tropical fish collected in Ghana. Any information that I have found so far have just been very general. Also does any one know if there is a data base that I can access that will list what fish have been collected in Ghana? I appreciate any help that some one can give me on this subject.

 

[Randall]

Collecting in Ghana

Dear Fisheads,

If you can organize a collecting trip to Ghana, please count me in.

By absolutely no means do I wish to discourage you, but last year, I did some homework on Ghana and on collecting in Ghana.

Ghana is the home to more than its share of endemic fishes, including several dwarf cichlid species; i.e., Tilapia busumana, Steatocranus irvinei, Limbochromis robertsi, Hemichromis frempongi and Hemichromis sp. "Ankasa". None of these fish are found anywhere else in the world. The reason these species are so rare in the hobby is because there is little, if any, collecting done in Ghana.

From what I understand, some Nigerian collectors will travel to the Volta River system in the eastern part of the country, but no one collects in the west and central regions.

Limbochromis robertsi, as an example, is found in central Ghana where there is very little infrastructure, so getting to the collection site(s) is difficult. This fish lives in small rocky streams situated in dense rain forest, where the banks bear heavy vegetation. At the first disturbance, they take to the nooks and cranies between the rocks, making this little beauty almost impossible to catch. Anton Lamboj et al. have collected L. robertsi before, so it can be done. It just won't be easy.

I think you may be experiencing difficultly in getting collection trip information because there is little or none. As far as I know, there are no commercial exporters who handle Ghanan fish, and there are no organized collecting trips. The new Hemichromis sp. "Ankasa" has made a recent appearance in the German hobby, but I think this fish was collected by an individual and not through a commercial effort. Toyin Ojo might be a good person to ask about this subject. He has good access to Nigerian collectors.

Good luck, and please keep us posted.

All the best,

Randall Kohn

 

[Neil]

fisheads,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Yes, please do keep us informed. I would look hard and close about that trip also.

Neil

 

[fisheads]

You are both welcome to come if I can get this off the ground. The tenative date would be August or September next year. I am more of a killifish nut than a dwarf cichlid nut and the main reason I was looking to go was to collect Fp. walkeri, Fundulosoma therryi, and re introduce to the hobby Pro. kywienensis( has been out of the hobby for about 10 years from what I can tell) but the dwarf cichlids would be a nice bonus. Also have seen some collection data on the Blue Gularis(killi) that shows a collection location in Ghana. It is information that is 40 years old and talks about a fish that is smaller and more yellow to red than a regular Blue gularis. Could be the collection locale for Dwarf Red Gularis? I have a contact in Ghana that I can trust and he will be able to help with the ground work.
You are right about there being no info about collection sites as it seems that any meaningfull collecting happened about 20 to 30 years ago. I will keep you posted and should have most of the details worked out by the end of the summer.

 

[jvanrompu]

Heh Mississauga

I am looking on going collecting also.
Ghana sounds promissing, also so does Gabon, I speak french
and it is rumoured that there are still many undicovered areas
in Southern Gabon, lots of killies.

Count me in for this one if you need help,
I am in Brampton, I can get a hold of Wildekamp etc to see if there are any
maps or locations for these fish.

PS what is your name, we may have met already.

Thanks

John

 

[fisheads]

Hello John, It's Haydn. Tried to send you and E-mail but Hal has been on the blink again . No one has recieved my E-mails from the past week. I also have not been getting peoples E-mails. Any information would be a great help on collection locations in Ghana. My contact is trying to make arrangements to send over some fish in late August from fish collected around Acrra and Lake Volta. This will be the first shippment and it will be just samples. But hopefully some interesting stuff will make it in.
Also were you planning on going to Costa Rica in the spring with Tommy Mason? I have 2 people confirmed that they will go this spring which means we should be going to the South pacific side to collect as well as the North East to collect. I am hoping to be able to collect around Lake Aereal this time. I will e-mail you with more details on Ghana. Hopefully Hal will let it go through this time.