Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Aulonocara sp. "Brown Piper"

Aulonocara sp. "Brown Piper" "Chembe Beach"

Chembe Beach — CHEHM-beh BEECH (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 sp. "Brown Piper" account →

Specific to Chembe Beach

  • 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 sp. "Brown Piper".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.1 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth26–98 ft8–30 m
DietSand-sifting micro-invertivore via ampullary lateral-line pores
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; expected modest (a few dozen eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales brownish with faint barring and a slight metallic sheen; females and subordinate males plainer silvery-brown and cryptic.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chembe Beach population

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

Colour reference: living Chembe Beach fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Aulonocara sp. "Brown Piper" is an undescribed peacock cichlid from Lake Malawi — a fish recognised in the hobby and field literature but never given a formal scientific name. Its informal label marks a subdued, brownish peacock among the showier blue and yellow forms of the western lake, documented from the Nkhata Bay area. Like all peacocks it belongs to the lake's radiation of sand-sifting sensory hunters — fish that hover over open sand and listen, through enlarged pits on the head, for invertebrates buried below. It is recognised informally, principally through Ad Konings's work, and is one of several descriptively named brown sand-dwellers that circulate as undescribed forms. No authority, year, FishBase number, or Red List status should ever be attached to it.

Full Aulonocara sp. "Brown Piper" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Aulonocara sp. "Brown Piper" "Chembe Beach"
  2. Cichlid Room Companion — Aulonocara genus and undescribed forms (Ad Konings, curator)
  3. malawicichlids.com — Aulonocara sand-dwelling peacock forms (M.K. Oliver)
  4. malawi.si — Aulonocara species database (Konings-based; biotope, distribution, diet, breeding)
  5. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi authority)
  6. Practical Fishkeeping — "Cichlids with a sixth sense" by Ad Konings (sensory feeding in Aulonocara)