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

Aulonocara sp. "Minutus" "Monkey Bay"

Monkey Bay — MUNK-ee BAY (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. "Minutus" account →

Specific to Monkey Bay

  • 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. "Minutus".

CARESNOT LISTED
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth66–197 ft20–60 m
DietSand-sifting micro-invertivore via ampullary lateral-line pores
BreedingMaternal mouthbroodersmall — a few dozen eggs or fewer (small-bodied peacock)
Sexual dimorphismYesMarked: nuptial males more colourful and somewhat larger; females and subordinate males plainer, silvery-brown and cryptic.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Monkey Bay population

Aulonocara sp. "Minutus" "Monkey Bay" is the Monkey Bay population of Aulonocara sp. "Minutus", 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. "Minutus", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Monkey Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Aulonocara sp. "Minutus" 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: small peacocks of the open sandy floor, away from reefs, brought up chiefly by trawl surveys and documented in Gunther Turner's "Offshore Cichlids of Lake Malawi". The working epithet flags its diminutive size, and the form is treated here as allied to the small deep-water sand-dwelling peacocks — an affinity stated honestly, not a determination. No describing author, year, FishBase record, or IUCN assessment exists for "Minutus"; nothing about its authority or rank should be invented.

Full Aulonocara sp. "Minutus" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Aulonocara sp. "Minutus" "Monkey Bay"
  2. Turner, G.F. — Offshore Cichlids of Lake Malawi (Cichlid Press; primary source on trawled deep-water sand-dwelling Aulonocara)
  3. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority)
  4. MalawiCichlids.com — Aulonocara (M.K. Oliver; genus overview including sand-dwelling forms)
  5. malawi.si — Aulonocara (M.K. Oliver / Konings species database)
  6. FishBase — Aulonocara (genus; reference for peacock biology and described small offshore relatives)