Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Buccochromis nototaenia

Buccochromis nototaenia "Mdoka"

Mdoka — m-DOH-kah (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 Buccochromis nototaenia account →

Specific to Mdoka

  • 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 Buccochromis nototaenia.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size13.8 in35 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth10–66 ft3–20 m
DietRoving piscivore (small fish over sand)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderNot documented for this species; genus-typical several hundred eggs expected
Sexual dimorphismYesMales grow larger (~35 cm) and develop metallic blue-green coloration; females (~30 cm) remain smaller, silvery with the dark diagonal stripe and yellow on snout and lower fins.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mdoka population

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

Colour reference: living Mdoka fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Buccochromis nototaenia, the stripeback hap, is one of Lake Malawi's roving sand-zone hunters: a streamlined haplochromine that cruises the open bottom just off the beaches and runs down the juvenile cichlids living there. It carries a single dark band slanting along the back — the 'stripeback' of its English name and the literal meaning of its species epithet — and grows into a powerful predator that keepers measure in feet, not inches. Its very name is a small taxonomic argument, because the authority that governs fish nomenclature and the specialist whose literature most aquarists follow do not agree on what to call it.

Full Buccochromis nototaenia account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Buccochromis nototaenia "Mdoka"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Haplochromis atritaeniatus / Buccochromis atritaeniatus (status, synonymy with B. nototaenia)
  3. FishBase — Buccochromis nototaenia (Stripeback hap): distribution, size, biology, IUCN status
  4. malawi.si — Buccochromis nototaenia (biotope, depth 3–20 m, size, diet, breeding, tankmates; photos © Ad Konings / George Turner)
  5. Turner, G.F., 'Identification of the Cichlid Fishes of Lake Malawi/Nyasa, Part 1: Cyrtocarina (benthic/hap sub-radiation)' — Buccochromis nototaenia described as Paratilapia nototaenia from a single specimen, Boulenger 1902
  6. Maréchal, C. (1991), 'Buccochromis', in Check-list of the freshwater fishes of Africa (CLOFFA) Vol. 4 — type, synonymy, and 23 cm size figure