Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Cynotilapia chilundu

Cynotilapia chilundu "Taiwanee Reef"

Cynotilapia chilundu (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 Cynotilapia chilundu 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 Cynotilapia chilundu.

IUCNVULNERABLE · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesCynotilapia afradescribed as Hemichromis afer Günther 1894
Scientific size3.5 in8.3 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 179 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth16 ft5 m
DietZooplankton picker (+ some aufwuchs)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderUndocumented for the species; genus-typical small broods (roughly a dozen to a few dozen eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales bright blue-and-black barred with a dark submarginal band in the dorsal fin; females subdued but retain distinct flank and interorbital bars.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Taiwanee Reef population

Cynotilapia chilundu "Taiwanee Reef" is the Taiwanee Reef population of Cynotilapia chilundu, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Cynotilapia chilundu, 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

Cynotilapia chilundu is a slender, blue-barred dwarf mbuna known from a single offshore reef in Lake Malawi, where the entire wild population may number only a few hundred adults. Described in 2016, it spent years in the aquarium trade under the placeholder name "Elongatus Taiwan" before it had a scientific one. Its story is a tidy illustration of how Malawi's rock-dwelling cichlids speciate reef by reef — and of how vulnerable that pattern makes them.

Full Cynotilapia chilundu account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Cynotilapia chilundu "Taiwanee Reef"
  2. Cynotilapia chilundu — Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer), California Academy of Sciences
  3. Cynotilapia chilundu — FishBase species summary
  4. Cynotilapia chilundu — GRSciColl / GBIF type specimens
  5. Li, Konings & Stauffer (2016): A Revision of the Pseudotropheus elongatus species group, Zootaxa 4168(2):353–381 (abstract & references)
  6. Li, Konings & Stauffer (2016) revision — PubMed record
  7. IUCN Red List — Cynotilapia chilundu "Taiwanee Reef"
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