Diplotaxodon dentatus "Thumbi East Island"
Thumbi East Island — TOOM-bee EEST 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 Diplotaxodon dentatus account →Specific to Thumbi East 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 Diplotaxodon dentatus.
The Thumbi East Island population
Diplotaxodon dentatus "Thumbi East Island" is the Thumbi East Island population of Diplotaxodon dentatus, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Diplotaxodon dentatus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Thumbi East Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Diplotaxodon dentatus is an offshore, open-water cichlid from Lake Malawi's little-known pelagic haplochromine radiation, a group of silvery, schooling fish that live away from the rocky shallows most aquarists associate with the lake. Its species name — Latin for "toothed" — points to more conspicuous dentition than in some of its congeners, a hint of a diet leaning further toward small fish and larger prey items than the genus's more strictly zooplanktivorous members. It is documented here from Monkey Bay and Thumbi East Island, two long-studied sites in the southern basin near Cape Maclear.
Full Diplotaxodon dentatus account →