Julidochromis marlieri "Isanga Bay"
Isanga Bay — ee-SAHN-gah 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 Julidochromis marlieri account →Specific to Isanga 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 Julidochromis marlieri.
The Isanga Bay population
Julidochromis marlieri "Isanga Bay" is the Isanga Bay population of Julidochromis marlieri, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Julidochromis marlieri, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Isanga Bay fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Julidochromis marlieri, the Marlier's or checkerboard julie, is a small rock-dwelling cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, instantly recognizable by the grid of dark markings stamped across its pale, elongate body. It belongs to the handful of "julies" that hug the rocky reefs of Africa's deepest lake, grazing the thin film of algae, sponges, and tiny invertebrates that coats the stone. Its most surprising trait is social rather than visual: in this species the female is the larger, more dominant partner of a bonded pair, a sex-role reversal rare among monogamous cichlids that has made the fish a favorite subject for behavioral biologists.
Full Julidochromis marlieri account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Julidochromis marlieri "Isanga Bay"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Julidochromis marlieri
- FishBase — Julidochromis marlieri Poll, 1956
- GBIF — Julidochromis marlieri
- iNaturalist — Marlier's Julie (Julidochromis marlieri)
- Barlow & Lee (2005), Sex-Reversed Dominance and Aggression in Julidochromis marlieri — reviewed in TFH, 'She's So Heavy' (W. Leibel)