Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Aulonocara gertrudae

Aulonocara gertrudae "Narungu"

Narungu — nah-ROON-goo (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 gertrudae account →

Specific to Narungu

  • 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 gertrudae.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.3 in11 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth49–98 ft15–30 m
DietSand-sifting benthic invertivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbroodersmall, ~few dozen eggs (not precisely counted in the wild)
Sexual dimorphismYesTerritorial males deep metallic blue with distinct yellow anal-fin spots (northern males also with an orange shoulder patch); females drab with yellow ventral fins.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Narungu population

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

Colour reference: living Narungu fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Aulonocara gertrudae is a sand-dwelling peacock cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, formally described by Ad Konings in 1995 in volume 5 of The Cichlids Yearbook — one of three new sand-dwelling Aulonocara he named in a single review of the group. Long traded as Aulonocara sp. "jumbo blue" or the "Multispot Aulonocara" before it had a name, it is one of the most widely distributed peacocks in the lake, ranging from Ikombe in the far north (Tanzania) to Masinje in the south (Malawi). Breeding males are deep metallic blue marked with a scatter of distinct yellow spots in the anal fin, and females carry yellow ventral fins — the paired diagnostic that lets the species be recognised in the wild.

Full Aulonocara gertrudae account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Aulonocara gertrudae "Narungu"
  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, Cichlid Press (original description of A. gertrudae)
  3. Konings, A. — 'Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat' (Cichlid Press; standard field reference for Lake Malawi sand-dwellers)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Aulonocara gertrudae Konings, 1995 (species record, spid 63061)
  5. FishBase — Aulonocara gertrudae summary (depth 3–30 m, max 11.0 cm SL, etymology, IUCN link)
  6. GBIF — Aulonocara gertrudae Konings, 1995 (occurrence records)