Taxonomy & naming
Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete" is undescribed: it has no holotype, authority, publication year, or entry of its own in Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes. Cynotilapia was erected by Regan in 1922 for the lake’s small, plankton-picking mbuna, historically centred on the widespread Cynotilapia afra, itself later shown to be a complex of several distinct species and numerous locality colour forms — a revision led by Li, Konings and Stauffer that resurrected Cynotilapia zebroides and described additional species from what was once lumped as "afra." This form, recorded from the Border, Liwani, Malopa and Ntekete area of the southern lake, is one of many such locality forms still known only by trade name. The word "Lion" in the label is not documented in the accessible literature; it functions as part of the informal trade name rather than a confirmed descriptive or locational reference, alongside "Ntekete," which is itself one of the recorded collection sites.
Morphology
Cynotilapia are small, slender-bodied mbuna, genus-typical adult size running roughly 2.5–3.5 in, distinctly smaller than most other Malawi mbuna genera. Males are typically blue, often with dark vertical barring or a dark stripe pattern, while females are usually paler and less contrastingly marked — the standard mbuna pattern of sexual dichromatism, though at the smaller body size characteristic of the genus. No formal description or measurements exist for this specific population; the name suggests a distinctive male colour or finnage feature, possibly an extended or richly coloured dorsal fin, but the precise pattern has not been documented in any published account and should not be asserted with more confidence than that.
Habitat
Recorded from Border, Liwani, Malopa and Ntekete, this form occupies a tightly clustered run of rocky shoreline straddling the Malawi–Mozambique border in the southern lake, the same general area that has produced several other narrowly distributed cichlid trade forms. Cynotilapia characteristically forages in the open water just above rocky reef rather than pressed against the rock itself, schooling loosely in the water column at depths broadly in the 10–49 ft range. Water conditions follow Lake Malawi’s typical profile: warm, hard and alkaline, roughly 75–82 °F and pH 7.7–8.6.
Feeding
Unlike most mbuna, which scrape algae directly from rock, Cynotilapia are primarily zooplanktivores, hovering in loose schools above the reef and picking individual zooplankton items out of the water column — a foraging mode closer to that of the open-water haplochromines than to the algae-grazing mbuna they are classified alongside. This diet and foraging style underlies the genus’s comparatively social, less territorially aggressive temperament outside of breeding, since individuals are not defending a fixed grazing patch on rock in the way most mbuna do.
Mating
Cynotilapia remain polygynous with no pair bond, but males establish and defend a small breeding territory on or near rock, typically a crevice used for spawning, even though the fish forages away from the rock face in open water for most of the day. Displaying males draw females from the surrounding school to spawn at these sites. Courtship follows the standard haplochromine pattern of quivering and circling. Outside active breeding, Cynotilapia are notably more tolerant of conspecifics and schooling behaviour than most other Malawi mbuna, a trait that carries over into aquarium behaviour.
Breeding
Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete" is a maternal mouthbrooder, as is every member of its genus. After spawning at the male’s crevice territory, the female takes the fertilised eggs into her mouth and broods them for roughly three to four weeks, feeding little during this period, before releasing free-swimming fry with no further parental care. Clutch size in Cynotilapia is small relative to larger mbuna, reflecting the genus’s small adult body size — typically in the range of 10–20 eggs — though no figure has been documented specifically for this population.
In the aquarium
Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete" is a good choice for a community mbuna tank precisely because of its schooling, comparatively peaceful temperament away from spawning. It does best kept in a group of six or more in a tank of at least 39.5–47 in, with rockwork providing shelter and breeding crevices while leaving open water for the fish to school and forage as it naturally would.
Water chemistry should replicate Lake Malawi: temperature 75–82 °F, pH 7.7–8.6, and hard, alkaline conditions maintained consistently. Diet should include fine flake or pellet foods along with small live or frozen zooplankton-type foods such as brine shrimp and daphnia, offered in the water column rather than only on the substrate, reflecting its natural feeding mode. Its smaller size and gentler disposition make it a sensible anchor species for a mixed mbuna community, though it should still not be combined with larger, more aggressive mbuna that may outcompete or bully it.
Conservation
No IUCN Red List assessment exists for Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete", and none can while it remains formally undescribed. No status, category or year should be attached to it. Because it is recorded from a narrow, tightly clustered stretch of shoreline straddling an international border, its range may be genuinely restricted, which would make it more vulnerable to localised habitat disturbance or intensive collection than a wider-ranging form — but no data confirm the true extent of its distribution or any pressure on it. The accurate statement is that it is unevaluated.