Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri"

Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri" "Nakantenga Island"Maleri sunshine peacock

Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri" (Chidunga Rocks, Chitseko Reef, Maleri Island, Nakantenga Island, Nankoma Island)

Nakantenga Island — nah-kahn-TEHN-gah 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. "Stuartgranti Maleri" account →

Specific to Nakantenga 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. "Stuartgranti Maleri".

CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesAulonocara nyassaeRegan 1922
Scientific size5 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 446 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth16–82 ft5–25 m
DietSand-sifting micro-invertivore via ampullary lateral-line pores
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodermodest — a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales combine a bright yellow body with an iridescent blue head and fins ('sunshine'), coloured year-round; females and subordinate males silvery-brown and cryptic.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nakantenga Island population

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

Colour reference: living Nakantenga Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri" is the Maleri Islands population of the sunshine peacock, Aulonocara stuartgranti — a brilliantly coloured yellow-and-blue fish that the hobby treats as a distinct locality form even though it is not a separate, formally described species. It is the source of the famous "sunshine peacock" of the aquarium trade. Like all peacocks it belongs to Lake Malawi'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. As an informally circulated geographic form of a described species it carries no separate authority, year, FishBase number, or Red List status of its own, and none should ever be invented for it.

Full Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri" "Nakantenga Island"
  2. Cichlid Room Companion — Aulonocara stuartgranti and its locality forms (Ad Konings, curator)
  3. malawicichlids.com — Aulonocara stuartgranti complex and the Maleri 'sunshine' population (M.K. Oliver)
  4. malawi.si — Aulonocara stuartgranti species database (Konings-based; biotope, distribution, diet, breeding)
  5. FishBase — Aulonocara stuartgranti (Flavescent peacock; the parent species)
  6. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi authority)
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