Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ruarwe"

Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ruarwe" "Ruarwe"

Ruarwe — roo-AH-rweh (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 Ruarwe" account →

Specific to Ruarwe

  • 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 Ruarwe".

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 detail for this population; genus-typical sexual dichromatism, with males more intensely coloured than females, is expected.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Ruarwe population

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

Colour reference: living Ruarwe fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ruarwe" is an undescribed mbuna cichlid from the far northern shore of Lake Malawi, recorded at Charo and Ruarwe. It has no formal scientific name. The trade tag places it in the elongatus complex — the slender-bodied, crevice-feeding Chindongo lineage — and identifies it by the northern village of Ruarwe, a well-known collecting point on the rocky Malawian shore. 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 Ruarwe" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Chindongo sp. "Elongatus Ruarwe" "Ruarwe"
  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)