Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Chindongo saulosi

Chindongo saulosi "Taiwanee Reef"

Taiwanee Reef — ty-WAHN-ee 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 saulosi account →

Specific to Taiwanee 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 saulosi.

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3 in8 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth3–39 ft1–12 m
DietAufwuchs grazer (algae/diatoms bitten from rock)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygynous, no pair bond)small — a few dozen eggs, consistent with the species' small adult size
Sexual dimorphismYesStrongly dichromatic — males show vivid electric-blue vertical bars over a dark ground; females and juveniles are lemon-yellow to orange with little or no barring, unusually distinct for a mbuna.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Taiwanee Reef population

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

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

About the species

Chindongo saulosi — now formally Chindongo saulosi — is a dwarf mbuna cichlid endemic to a single offshore reef in Lake Malawi, where males are electric blue with black bars and females and juveniles are vivid yellow-gold. Described by Ad Konings in 1990, it became a hobby favorite for its small size and dramatic two-tone coloration. That popularity also nearly emptied its home reef: heavy collection for the aquarium trade drove the wild population to the brink, and it is one of the rare cichlids that has been bred in captivity and physically reintroduced to the lake.

Full Chindongo saulosi account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Chindongo saulosi "Taiwanee Reef"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Species search (California Academy of Sciences; authority for valid names)
  3. 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, Zootaxa 4168(2): 353–381
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)