I welcome questions about any aspect of cichlids or fishes and I try to answer every question within a week, usually the same day.

First, please check the Frequently Asked Questions page -- the answer to your question may already be there!

If you send me a question and I do not answer within a week, please send it again -- the original may have been lost or misfiled. There is nothing worse than waiting for an answer that isn't coming.

Students -- I get lots of questions from students saying they are "doing a project" on cichlids. This is great -- cichlids are wonderful topics for all sorts of projects. However, please let me know whether you are in grade school, high school, or university and whether your project involves reading and writing about cichlids, or performing actual experiments with cichlids. I can give you a much better answer with those pieces of information.

Hints for asking better questions -- try to be as specific as you can. For example, please don't ask me to send you all the information I have on fishkeeping.

Identifications -- I will certainly try to help identify your fish, but if you can email a picture I have a much better shot at helping you (even a blurry photo is better than none). Keep in mind that there are over 2300 species of cichlids, so the better you can describe your fish, the more likely I can identify it. If you are unsure about the names of the fins and body parts on your fish, this page on anatomy will help.

Names -- Please include your first name in your email message -- I prefer to correspond with actual people rather than email addresses.

To send me a message, use this mailer.

ONLY If my regular email address doesn't work, try my alternate email address: rcoleman@csus.edu Please do not send your message to both addresses.