Julidochromis marksmithi "Mvuna Island"
Mvuna Island — m-VOO-nah 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 Julidochromis marksmithi account →Specific to Mvuna 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 Julidochromis marksmithi.
The Mvuna Island population
Julidochromis marksmithi "Mvuna Island" is the Mvuna Island population of Julidochromis marksmithi, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Julidochromis marksmithi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mvuna Island fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Julidochromis marksmithi is a small, elongate rock-dwelling cichlid endemic to a short stretch of the Tanzanian coast of Lake Tanganyika, centered on the Kipili archipelago. For decades it was passed around the hobby under provisional tags like Julidochromis sp. "regani Kipili" before Warren Burgess formally described it in 2014, separating it from the broader regani/ornatus complex on the strength of its vivid yellow ground color, its two-and-a-half dark longitudinal bands, and a cheek stripe absent from its closest relatives. It is one of the more recently named members of a genus whose taxonomy is still being untangled across the lake.
Full Julidochromis marksmithi account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Julidochromis marksmithi "Mvuna Island"
- Julidochromis marksmithi — FishBase species summary
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Julidochromis marksmithi (species record)
- Burgess, W. E. (2014). Julidochromis marksmithi, a new species of Julidochromis from the Tanzanian coast of Lake Tanganyika (reference record)
- O'Reilly, C. M. et al. (2003). Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika. Nature 424:766–768
- Cohen, A. S. et al. (2016). Climate warming reduces fish production and benthic habitat in Lake Tanganyika. PNAS 113(34):9563–9568