Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda"

Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda" "Hai Reef"

Hai Reef — HAH-ee REEF (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. "Lwanda" account →

Specific to Hai Reef

  • 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. "Lwanda".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.5 in14 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth10–33 ft3–10 m
DietSand-sifting micro-invertivore; uses ampullary lateral-line pores to detect prey in sand (a cave-associated form that takes insect larvae and crustaceans from sandy cave floors and rock sediment)
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot closely documented for this form
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong: breeding males deep blue with red-orange edging on the vertical fins (the "Red Top"); females drab, slightly darker than sympatric A. stuartgranti females.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Hai Reef population

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

Colour reference: living Hai Reef fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda" is an undescribed peacock cichlid from Lake Malawi — well documented by Ad Konings but never formally named, so it carries no scientific name, author, or year. It is one of the lake's cave-dwelling peacocks, a relative of the celebrated Aulonocara jacobfreibergi, and once counted among the most striking cichlids in the whole lake. Breeding males are a deep electric blue overlaid with vivid red-orange edging along the dorsal and other vertical fins, the feature that earned it the universal trade name "Red Top." It lives at the far south-eastern edge of the lake's range, on Hai Reef in Tanzanian waters and along the Mozambican coast near Chiwindi, and its very beauty has made it a target: collectors have reduced the wild population to perilously low numbers.

Full Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda" "Hai Reef"
  2. malawi.si — Aulonocara sp. 'lwanda' Hai Reef (Konings-based species database; distribution, size, habitat, breeding, conservation)
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Aulonocara sp. 'lwanda' (Ad Konings, curator; cave-dweller group, conservation, <1000 individuals)
  4. Practical Fishkeeping — "Cichlids with a sixth sense" by Ad Konings (cave-dwelling Aulonocara including sp. 'lwanda'; Hai Reef / Chiwindi, 3-10 m)
  5. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 2nd ed. (Cichlid Press, 1995; original reference for sp. 'lwanda')