Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Cynotilapia sp. "Maleri"

Cynotilapia sp. "Maleri" "Nakantenga Island"

Nakantenga Island — nah-kahn-TEHN-gah EYE-land (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 sp. "Maleri" account →

Specific to Nakantenga Island

  • 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 sp. "Maleri".

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
Depth10–66 ft3–20 m
DietPicks loose diatoms, filamentous algae, and fine detritus from rock and sand using the genus's diagnostic unicuspid teeth, rather than scraping bound algal turf; juveniles often forage in loose midwater aggregations.
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodera few dozen eggs (genus-typical)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales show the fuller dark blue, black-barred breeding pattern and brighter fin edging; females and non-dominant males are paler and less contrastingly marked.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nakantenga Island population

Cynotilapia sp. "Maleri" "Nakantenga Island" is the Nakantenga Island population of Cynotilapia sp. "Maleri", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Cynotilapia sp. "Maleri", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Nakantenga Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Cynotilapia sp. "Maleri" is an undescribed dwarf mbuna known only from a small cluster of islands and reefs in the southern half of Lake Malawi — the Maleri Islands, Nakantenga Island, and the adjoining Mkondiwa Reef. It was among the earliest Cynotilapia populations noted by science, appearing in Ribbink and colleagues' 1983 rocky-shore survey of the lake, yet more than four decades later it still carries no formal name. In the field it is a dark, almost inky-blue mbuna barred with black vertical stripes, one of dozens of local Cynotilapia colour forms that fragment across Lake Malawi's rocky coastline, each isolated on its own island or reef and each subtly different from its neighbours.

Full Cynotilapia sp. "Maleri" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Cynotilapia sp. "Maleri" "Nakantenga Island"
  2. malawi.si — Cynotilapia (Konings-based species database; Malawi genus overview)
  3. Konings, A. — Cichlids Yearbook, Volume 1 (Cichlid Press; Pseudotropheus zebra complex and southern-lake mbuna distribution)
  4. Konings, A. — Cichlids Yearbook, Volume 2 (Cichlid Press; Cynotilapia species and undescribed forms)
  5. Cichlid Room Companion — Cynotilapia (genus profile)