Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Chindongo demasoni

Chindongo demasoni "Ndumbi Reef"

Ndumbi Reef — n-DOOM-bee 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 Chindongo demasoni account →

Specific to Ndumbi 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 Chindongo demasoni.

IUCNVULNERABLE · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size2.5 in6.3 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth0–23 ft0–7 m
DietAufwuchs grazer (algae/diatoms bitten from rock)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygynous, no pair bond)small — a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismMinimalSexually monomorphic — both sexes wear the same blue-and-black striped pattern, unusual for mbuna. Dominant males are slightly larger, more intensely coloured and carry anal-fin egg-spots, but colour is not a reliable sex cue.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Ndumbi Reef population

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

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

About the species

Chindongo demasoni is a dwarf mbuna from a tiny patch of the Tanzanian shore of Lake Malawi, a fish whose vivid alternating bars of electric blue and near-black make it instantly recognisable and perennially popular in the hobby. Described by Ad Konings in 1994 and moved in 2016 into the new genus Chindongo, it is unusual among mbuna in being sexually monomorphic — males and females wear the same striped livery — and notorious among aquarists for an intraspecific aggression so relentless that the standard advice is to keep it either as a single specimen or in a crowd of a dozen or more. What few keepers realise is that this temper is largely an artefact of the glass box: in the wild, at Pombo and Ndumbi reefs, the species is reported to be neither territorial nor aggressive toward its own kind.

Full Chindongo demasoni account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Chindongo demasoni "Ndumbi Reef"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Chindongo demasoni (Konings 1994); original Pseudotropheus demasoni, holotype MRAC 94-12-P-1, type locality Pombo Rocks, Tanzania
  3. FishBase — Chindongo demasoni (max 6.3 cm SL; eponymy for Laif DeMason; IUCN VU; trophic level ~2.6)
  4. Li, S., Konings, A.F. & Stauffer, J.R. Jr. (2016) — A revision of the Pseudotropheus elongatus species group with description of a new genus Chindongo and seven new species, Zootaxa 4168(2): 353–381 (genus diagnosis, etymology, species transfer)
  5. Konings, A. (1994) — Pseudotropheus demasoni sp. nov.: a sexually monomorphic cichlid from the Tanzanian coast of Lake Malawi, The Cichlids Yearbook vol. 4: 24–27, Cichlid Press (original description)
  6. malawi.si (M.K. Oliver / Konings Lake Malawi database) — Chindongo demasoni, location variants incl. 'Pombo Rocks', 'Ndumbi Point', 'Ndumbi Reef'