Diplotaxodon greenwoodi "Mbamba Bay"
Mbamba Bay — m-BAHM-bah BAY (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 greenwoodi account →Specific to Mbamba Bay
- 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 greenwoodi.
The Mbamba Bay population
Diplotaxodon greenwoodi "Mbamba Bay" is the Mbamba Bay population of Diplotaxodon greenwoodi, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Malawi in the northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Diplotaxodon greenwoodi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mbamba Bay fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Diplotaxodon greenwoodi is the largest member of a genus of deep-water haplochromine cichlids found only in Lake Malawi, the kind of fish almost no aquarist will ever see alive. A heavy-bodied, silver predator with a small eye and a steeply upturned, almost shark-like gape, it patrols the dim shelf and reef zones tens of meters down. Described in 1986 as a 'paedophage' thought to steal fry from brooding females, it is now read more simply as a piscivore that swallows juvenile cichlids whole.
Full Diplotaxodon greenwoodi account →Sources
- malawi.si — Diplotaxodon greenwoodi "Mbamba Bay"
- Diplotaxodon greenwoodi — FishBase species summary
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Diplotaxodon greenwoodi (species record)
- Stauffer & McKaye 1986 — Description of a paedophagous deep-water cichlid from Lake Malawi (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 99:29–33)
- Stauffer, Phiri & Konings 2018 — Description of two deep-water fishes of the genus Diplotaxodon (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 131:90–100)
- Turner et al. 2004 — Identification and biology of Diplotaxodon, Rhamphochromis and Pallidochromis (Cichlid Press / Bangor research record)