Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia "Ntekete"
Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia (Chimwalani Reef, Likoma Island, Ntekete)
Ntekete — n-teh-KEH-teh (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 Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia account →Specific to Ntekete
- 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 Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia.
The Ntekete population
Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia "Ntekete" is the Ntekete population of Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Ntekete fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia is a medium-to-large haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, distinguished by a bold dark stripe confined to the rear half of its flanks and caudal peduncle — the 'tail-stripe' its name describes. It is a piscivore of the sand-rock interface, hunting in small groups over shallow sandy grounds while breeding males erect conical sand-castle spawning mounds near rocky reefs. As the type species of its genus, it anchors the small Hemitaeniochromis clade, and its lake-wide distribution from shallow margins down to depths beyond 230 ft makes it one of the more wide-ranging Malawian predators.
Full Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia account →Sources
- malawi.si — Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia "Ntekete"
- FishBase — Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia (Regan, 1922)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia, species record (online version, updated 19 May 2026)
- GBIF — Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia (Regan, 1922), taxon key 2372958
- Regan, C.T. (1922) — original description: 'The cichlid fishes of Lake Nyassa', Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1921 (pt 4): 675–727, fig. 11
- Eccles, D.H. & Trewavas, E. (1989) — Malawian Cichlid Fishes: the Classification of some Haplochromine Genera (Lake Fish Movies, Herten) — genus erection, lectotype designation, diagnosis of H. urotaenia p. 71
- IUCN Red List — Hemitaeniochromis urotaenia "Ntekete"