Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Chindongo minutus

Chindongo minutus "Mbowe Island"Pseudotropheus minutus

Chindongo minutus (Lions Cove, Mbowe Island, Nkhata Bay, Ruarwe)

Mbowe Island — m-BOH-weh 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 Chindongo minutus account →

Specific to Mbowe 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 Chindongo minutus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesChindongo bellicosusLi, Konings & Stauffer 2016
Scientific size2.5 in6.6 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth7–33 ft2–10 m
DietAufwuchs scraper (algal micro-pockets)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder10–25 eggs (captive reports; low-fecundity consistent with body size)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales blue-purple with dark vertical bars and dark head; females beige/pale-brown with subdued patterning. Size difference modest; females may be fractionally smaller.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mbowe Island population

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

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

About the species

Chindongo minutus is the smallest of Lake Malawi's mbuna, a tribe of rock-dwelling cichlids famous for their colour and aggression. First described from Nkhata Bay in 1956 and currently valid under the genus Chindongo erected in 2016, this little fish reaches barely 2.5 in total length yet holds its own territory among much larger species — feeding on micro-pockets of algae that its bigger neighbours cannot reach.

Full Chindongo minutus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Chindongo minutus "Mbowe Island"
  2. FishBase — Chindongo minutus summary page
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — minutus, Pseudotropheus Fryer 1956 (species record)
  4. GBIF — Chindongo minutus (Fryer, 1956) backbone taxonomy
  5. Li, S., Konings, A.F. & Stauffer, J.R. Jr. (2016) — A revision of the Pseudotropheus elongatus species group with description of a new genus and seven new species. Zootaxa 4168(2):353–381
  6. Oliver, M.K. — Chindongo minutus (Fryer, 1956). The Cichlid Fishes of Lake Malawi, Africa (malawicichlids.com)
  7. IUCN Red List — Chindongo minutus "Mbowe Island"
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