Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania"

Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania" "Sambia Reef"

Sambia Reef — sahm-BEE-ah 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 sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania" account →

Specific to Sambia 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 sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.5 in9 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth10–59 ft3–18 m
DietAlgae/Aufwuchs grazer specialised for narrow rock crevices
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; expected modest given smaller body size
Sexual dimorphismYesNot documented in fine detail for this population; genus-typical pattern is males more intensely coloured than females, on a more patterned ('ornatus') base than plain elongatus-complex forms.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Sambia Reef population

Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania" "Sambia Reef" is the Sambia Reef population of Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania", 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 sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

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

About the species

Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania" is an undescribed mbuna cichlid from the Tanzanian waters of northern Lake Malawi, recorded at Chuwa and Sambia Reef. It has no formal scientific name. The trade tag places it in the elongatus complex — the slender-bodied, crevice-feeding Chindongo lineage — and flags it as an "ornatus" type, the more patterned end of that complex, with "Tanzania" separating it from a similarly named, similarly patterned population recorded further south near Likoma Island. It belongs to Chindongo, the genus Ad Konings split from Pseudotropheus in 2016, and is one of several closely related elongatus-type locality forms still awaiting formal description.

Full Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ornatus Tanzania" "Sambia Reef"
  2. malawi.si — Chindongo species and locality-form database (Konings-based; distribution, biotope)
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Chindongo genus and mbuna taxonomy (Ad Konings, curator)
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority)