What are the Husbandry Practices of African Lake Cichlids Across Research Institutions?

African lake cichlids are a speciose clade of fish that are particularly powerful models in evolutionary biology due to their remarkable species diversity and rapid diversification. In recent years, African cichlids have increasingly been maintained in laboratory settings, because of their growing use as model organisms across multiple disciplines. Their remarkable diversity has led them to emerge as particularly powerful models in developmental biology, as well as in behavioural and ecological research. However, unlike the traditional teleostean laboratory model, Danio rerio (zebrafish), which have well established and industrialised housing, the behavioural, morphological, and physiological diversity of African cichlids mean that standardised housing and welfare is challenging and more labour-intensive than for zebrafish. Therefore, information for the laboratory care of these fishes is relatively scarce compared to zebrafish, with much of the information and know-how available coming from hobbyists, which can be challenging to integrate in a laboratory setting. Collating the welfare and husbandry practices of different facilities is a powerful way to fill in the gaps and can be used to improve the welfare of the fish. Here we report our findings from a short questionnaire designed to collate information on husbandry and welfare practices from eight research groups that house African lake cichlids. Results were varied but were useful in refining our own husbandry practices. We hope that these findings provide a springboard for future studies to optimise the husbandry of African cichlids and improve both their overall welfare and scientific outcomes.