Aulonocara stuartgranti "Ngara"
Aulonocara stuartgranti (Border, Chesese, Chewere, Chiloelo, Chilucha Reef, Chilumba, Chimwalani Reef, Chinuni, Chiofu, Chirwa Island, Chisanga Point, Chitimba Bay, Chiwindi, Cobwe, Domwe Island, Gallireya Reef, Gome, Hai Reef, Hongi Island, Hora Mhango, Kande Island, Lions Cove, Liutche, Londo Bay, Lundo, Lundo Island, Luwala Reef, Maison Reef, Malopa, Mara Rocks, Masinje, Mbowe Island, Mdoka, Mdowa, Metangula, Mitande Reef (Rocks), Mkondowe, Mundola Point, Nametumbwe, Ngara, Nkhata Bay, Nkhungu Reef, Ntekete, Ntumba, Ruarwe, Sanga, Tchinga Reef, Thumbi West Island, Tumbi Point, Undu Reef, Usisya, Wikihi)
Ngara — n-GAH-rah (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 stuartgranti account →Specific to Ngara
- 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 stuartgranti.
The Ngara population
The Ngara Flametail is the most popular location variant of Aulonocara stuartgranti, a peacock cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi. Males from Ngara village on the Tanzanian shore display the most saturated orange-red flanks in the species — a coloration so consistent and distinct that hobbyists treat the Ngara form as its own entity, never to be crossed with fish from other collection points.
Colour reference: living Ngara fish at cichlidae.com →
About the species
Aulonocara stuartgranti, known in the hobby as Grant's peacock, is a maternal mouthbrooding cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi and one of the most familiar faces in the African-cichlid hobby. It is the archetypal "peacock": a sand-and-rock fish that hovers a few millimeters above the bottom and detects buried invertebrates with the enlarged lateral-line canals pitting its lower jaw — a sixth-sense feeding system confirmed in the lab on this very species. Across the lake it splits into dozens of vividly distinct geographic colour forms, from the orange-tailed Ngara "flametail" to the blue Usisya and Cobue, which is exactly why it is both beloved and a perennial hybridization headache for keepers.
Full Aulonocara stuartgranti account →Sources
- Konings, A. & Stauffer, J.R. Jr. (1988). A new Aulonocara from Lake Malawi — original description
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Aulonocara stuartgranti
- Schwalbe, A.M.B., Bassett, D.K. & Webb, J.F. (2012). Feeding in the dark: lateral-line-mediated prey detection in the peacock cichlid Aulonocara stuartgranti. J. Exp. Biol. 215: 2060–2071
- Konings, A. (2016). Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 5th ed. Cichlid Press
- IUCN Red List — Aulonocara stuartgranti (2018 assessment)
- FishBase — Aulonocara stuartgranti species summary
- Cichlid Room Companion — Aulonocara stuartgranti profile
- Chavula, G. et al. (2023). Threats to Lake Malawi biodiversity and the fisheries. Fisheries Research