Labeotropheus fuelleborni "Makankha Rocks"Blue mbuna
Labeotropheus fuelleborni (Boadzulu Island, Border, Chidunga Rocks, Chimwalani Reef, Chinyamwezi Island, Chinyankwazi Island, Chiofu, Chirwa Island, Chitande Island, Chiwi Rocks, Chizumulu Island, Chovya, Domwe Island, Fuawe Island, Gome, Hora Mhango, Ikwasi, Katale Island, Kavumu Rock, Lifuma, Likoma Island, Linganjala Reef, Lion Point, Luwala Reef, Luwino Reef, Madimba Bay, Magunga, Maingano Island, Maison Reef, Makanjila Point, Makankha Rocks, Maleri Island, Manda, Mara Rocks, Masimbwe island, Mbamba Bay, Mbenji Island, Mdoka, Membe Island, Minos Reef, Mitande Reef (Rocks), Mumbo Island, Nakantenga Island, Namalenje Island, Ndonga, Ndumbi Rocks, Ngwasi, Nkanda, Nkhungu Reef, Nkolongwe, Otter Island, Penga Penga Island, Pombo Rocks, Sambia Reef, Thumbi East Island, Thumbi West Island, Tumbi Point, Zimbawe Rock)
Makankha Rocks — mah-KAHN-kah ROKS (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 Labeotropheus fuelleborni account →Specific to Makankha Rocks
- 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 Labeotropheus fuelleborni.
The Makankha Rocks population
Labeotropheus fuelleborni "Makankha Rocks" is the Makankha Rocks population of Labeotropheus fuelleborni, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Labeotropheus fuelleborni, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Makankha Rocks fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Labeotropheus fuelleborni, the blue mbuna, is a rock-grazing cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi and one of the most instantly recognizable members of the lake's mbuna flock. Its fleshy, overhanging snout sits above a downturned mouth packed with chisel-shaped teeth — a purpose-built rasp for scraping the algal turf, or aufwuchs, off rocks. It is also a textbook case of explosive color variation: populations differ island to island, and females come in a barred blue-grey form and a patchwork orange-blotch (OB) morph, a polymorphism that has made the genus a favorite subject for evolutionary biologists.
Full Labeotropheus fuelleborni account →Sources
- malawi.si — Labeotropheus fuelleborni "Makankha Rocks"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Labeotropheus fuelleborni
- FishBase — Labeotropheus fuelleborni (Blue mbuna)
- FishBase — Reproduction summary, Labeotropheus fuelleborni
- USGS NAS — Blue mbuna (Labeotropheus fuelleborni) species profile
- Konings, A. — Cichlids Yearbook vol. 2 (Cichlid Press): Labeotropheus fuelleborni colour morphs, sympatry & localities (Katale, Mumbo, Mbenji)
- IUCN Red List — Labeotropheus fuelleborni "Makankha Rocks"