Aulonocara maylandi "Liwewe Reef"

About the species

Aulonocara maylandi, the sulphurhead peacock, is a small, sand-foraging peacock cichlid endemic to the south-eastern arm of Lake Malawi, where it is known from only two offshore reefs. Breeding males trade the genus's usual electric blues for a startling sulphur-yellow blaze that runs from the snout back over the nape and front of the dorsal fin — the feature that gives the fish its hobby name. Like all peacocks it hunts invisible prey: it hovers head-down over open sand and reads the faint water movements of buried invertebrates through a row of greatly enlarged pores along its jaw and head. Its tiny natural range and heavy collection for the aquarium trade have made it one of the most threatened cichlids in the lake, and its relationship to the Kande Island 'blue orchid' has been argued over for nearly forty years.