A Little Fish in Deep Water
Movie · Documentary

The ‘Best of Festival Wildscreen' winner, and a multi award-winning film from Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone, narrated by Ian Holm. The extraordinary story of how the oldest lake in Africa has evolved a freshwater community that is found nowhere else in the world. This is the story of how one little fish, against all the odds, has conquered a lake. Lake Tanganyika is an ‘ocean in Africa’. It has been colonised by a fish called ‘cichlid’. Otters, crocodiles, cobras, cormorants, kingfishers and ospreys all hunt the little fish in clear water. How the cichlid survived and evolved is an incredible story - for millions of years later there are over 200 new species - found only in Lake Tanganyika. Incredibly they have evolved to look like coral-reef fish. There are cichlid equivalents of tuna, snapper, gobies and goatfish. They have evolved bizarre methods of breeding, with mouth incubation, lekking and, unique amongst fish, there is even a cuckoo. Despite all their specialisations over millions of years - if an opportunity presents itself, all the fish can behave like their unspecialised ancestor. In the climax to the film, the cichlids shoal together to feast on the annual hatch of sardine fry.

2019 · 50m
Starring Ian Holm
Director Mark Deeble, Victoria Stone

Trailers

  • A Little Fish in Deep Water
    A Little Fish in Deep Water
    Documentary

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Cast & Crew

  • Ian Holm
    Self
  • Mark Deeble
    Director
  • Victoria Stone
    Director
  • Mark Deeble
    Producer
  • Victoria Stone
    Producer
  • Mark Deeble
    Writer
  • Victoria Stone
    Writer

About

A Little Fish in Deep Water

Documentary

The ‘Best of Festival Wildscreen' winner, and a multi award-winning film from Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone, narrated by Ian Holm. The extraordinary story of how the oldest lake in Africa has evolved a freshwater community that is found nowhere else in the world. This is the story of how one little fish, against all the odds, has conquered a lake. Lake Tanganyika is an ‘ocean in Africa’. It has been colonised by a fish called ‘cichlid’. Otters, crocodiles, cobras, cormorants, kingfishers and ospreys all hunt the little fish in clear water. How the cichlid survived and evolved is an incredible story - for millions of years later there are over 200 new species - found only in Lake Tanganyika. Incredibly they have evolved to look like coral-reef fish. There are cichlid equivalents of tuna, snapper, gobies and goatfish. They have evolved bizarre methods of breeding, with mouth incubation, lekking and, unique amongst fish, there is even a cuckoo. Despite all their specialisations over millions of years - if an opportunity presents itself, all the fish can behave like their unspecialised ancestor. In the climax to the film, the cichlids shoal together to feast on the annual hatch of sardine fry.

Information

Studio
Flat Dog Productions Ltd
Released
2019
Run Time
50 min
Rated
G
Region of Origin
United Kingdom
© Flat Dog Productions Ltd 2002

Languages

Original Audio
English
Audio

English (United Kingdom) (AAC)

Subtitles

English (United Kingdom) (CC)

Accessibility

Closed captions refer to subtitles in available languages with the addition of relevant non-dialogue information.
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Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

  • Armenia
  • Azerbaijan
  • Bahrain
  • Botswana
  • Brunei Darussalam
  • Cape Verde
  • Egypt
  • Eswatini
  • Gambia
  • Ghana
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • India
  • Israel
  • Jordan
  • Lebanon
  • Mauritius
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Niger (English)
  • Oman
  • Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia
  • South Africa
  • Sri Lanka
  • Tajikistan
  • Turkmenistan
  • Uganda
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Zimbabwe

Asia Pacific

  • Australia
  • Cambodia
  • Fiji
  • 香港 (廣東話–繁體)
  • Indonesia (English)
  • 日本
  • Lao People's Democratic Republic
  • 澳門 (廣東話–繁體)
  • Malaysia (English)
  • Micronesia, Federated States of
  • Mongolia
  • New Zealand
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
  • 대한민국
  • 台灣
  • Thailand
  • Turkmenistan
  • Vietnam

Europe

  • Armenia
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  • Belarus
  • Belgium
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  • Estonia
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  • Luxembourg (English)
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Latin America and the Caribbean

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  • Costa Rica (Español)
  • Dominica
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