Aulonocara sp. "Deep Yellow" "Maleri Island"
Maleri Island — mah-LEH-ree EYE-land (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. "Deep Yellow" account →Specific to Maleri Island
- 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. "Deep Yellow".
The Maleri Island population
Aulonocara sp. "Deep Yellow" "Maleri Island" is the Maleri Island population of Aulonocara sp. "Deep Yellow", 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. "Deep Yellow", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Maleri Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Aulonocara sp. "Deep Yellow" is an UNDESCRIBED peacock cichlid of Lake Malawi — an informal field and hobby name, not a validly published species. It belongs to the guild of offshore, deep-water sand-dwelling Aulonocara of the lake's south-east arm: peacocks that live out over the open sandy floor rather than on reefs, brought up chiefly by trawl surveys and documented in Gunther Turner's "Offshore Cichlids of Lake Malawi". The working name refers both to the yellow cast of nuptial males and to the deep open-sand habitat. No describing author, year, FishBase record, or IUCN assessment exists for "Deep Yellow"; this account describes a recognised but unnamed form, and nothing about its authority or rank should be invented.
Full Aulonocara sp. "Deep Yellow" account →Sources
- malawi.si — Aulonocara sp. "Deep Yellow" "Maleri Island"
- Turner, G.F. — Offshore Cichlids of Lake Malawi (Cichlid Press; primary source on trawled deep-water sand-dwelling Aulonocara)
- Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority)
- MalawiCichlids.com — Aulonocara (M.K. Oliver; genus overview including sand-dwelling forms)
- malawi.si — Aulonocara (M.K. Oliver / Konings species database)
- FishBase — Aulonocara (genus; reference for peacock biology and described offshore relatives)