Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Aulonocara ethelwynnae

Aulonocara ethelwynnae "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 ethelwynnae 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 ethelwynnae.

IUCNNEAR THREATENED · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size2.8 in7.1 cm standard length
Temperature72–79 °F22–26 °C
pH7.4–8alkaline
Depth10–82 ft3–25 m
DietSand-sifting benthic invertivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygynous, lek-spawning)small — a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesClear: territorial males yellow-flanked with metallic-blue fins and larger; females and non-breeding males plain brown-grey with black dorsal-fin lappets.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mdoka population

Aulonocara ethelwynnae "Mdoka" is the Mdoka population of Aulonocara ethelwynnae, 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 ethelwynnae, 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 ethelwynnae is a small peacock cichlid confined to the rocky-sandy shores of Lake Malawi's far northwestern coast, where territorial males glow yellow with blue-washed fins below about fifteen metres of murky water. It belongs to the lake's "chitande-type" peacocks — modest, deep-water sand-hunters that read the substrate for buried invertebrates through enlarged sensory pores riddling the head. Named for the great British cichlid taxonomist Ethelwynn Trewavas, it is one of the more cryptic members of a confusing complex of look-alike northern peacocks, and the conservation authorities now class it as Near Threatened, common at one island reef and barely present anywhere else.

Full Aulonocara ethelwynnae account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Aulonocara ethelwynnae "Mdoka"
  2. FishBase — Aulonocara ethelwynnae (Chitande aulonocara)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Aulonocara ethelwynnae (species record; holotype SMF 21145; type locality Chitande Island)
  4. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae): Aulonocara ethelwynnae etymology (honoring Ethelwynn Trewavas, 1900–1993)
  5. Cichlid Room Companion — Aulonocara ethelwynnae (Ad Konings, curator; Chitande Types group, distribution, conservation)
  6. malawi.si — Aulonocara ethelwynnae (M.K. Oliver / Stuart Grant database; biotope, depth, dimorphism, diagnostic notes)