Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Aulonocara aquilonium

Aulonocara aquilonium "Mdoka"

Mdoka — m-DOH-kah (approx.)

The fish

How this cichlid is built, and everything about how it lives, eats and breeds, is shared with the species — this page doesn't repeat it.

Read the full Aulonocara aquilonium account →

Specific to Mdoka

  • Collection locality & coordinates
  • Local coloration — best judged from the living-fish photo
  • Kept as a single-provenance line, never crossed with other collection points

Care facts below are the species' — shared with Aulonocara aquilonium.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.3 in8.5 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth39–82 ft12–25 m
DietSand-sifting invertivore (sonar-feeder on buried small invertebrates — snails, shrimp-like crustaceans)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygynous, lek-like)Not recorded for this species; genus-typical small clutch (~10–40 eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding/territorial males develop brighter coloration (metallic blue face, yellow-edged fins); females and non-territorial males stay pale sandy-silver.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mdoka population

Aulonocara aquilonium "Mdoka" is the Mdoka population of Aulonocara aquilonium, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Aulonocara aquilonium, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Mdoka fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Aulonocara aquilonium is a small sand-dwelling peacock cichlid endemic to the northern reaches of Lake Malawi, formally described by Ad Konings in 1995 as one of three new species in his review of the genus's sand-dwellers. At about 85 mm standard length it is the smallest of these open-bottom Aulonocara — a silvery, sonar-feeding invertivore that hovers above the sand near the rock-sand interface and hunts buried prey with the enlarged sensory canals that channel its head. Its naming carries a quiet correction: the fish Konings had pictured and labelled as the obscure Aulonocara auditor in 1991 turned out, on closer study, to be this previously undescribed species.

Full Aulonocara aquilonium account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Aulonocara aquilonium "Mdoka"
  2. Konings, A. (1995), 'A review of the sand-dwelling species of the genus Aulonocara, with the description of three new species', The Cichlids Yearbook 5:26-36 (original description of A. aquilonium)
  3. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press) — sand-dwelling Aulonocara
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Aulonocara aquilonium (species record)
  5. FishBase — Aulonocara aquilonium (Konings, 1995) summary
  6. GBIF — Aulonocara aquilonium occurrence records