Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Labidochromis mbenjii

Labidochromis mbenjii "Ababi Island"

Labidochromis mbenjii (Ababi Island, Mbenji Island)

Ababi Island — ah-BAH-bee 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 Labidochromis mbenjii account →

Specific to Ababi 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 Labidochromis mbenjii.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesLabidochromis vellicansTrewavas 1935
Scientific size2.5 in6.4 cm standard length
Temperature75–79 °F24–26 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 357 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth3–66 ft1–20 m
DietMicro-predator/omnivore — picks small invertebrates from rock Aufwuchs with forceps-like teeth (genus-typical; trophic level ~2.7)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygynous; inferred from genus)Unrecorded for this species; small Labidochromis typically ~10–30 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMbuna-typical: males brighter with anal-fin egg-spots, females plainer.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Ababi Island population

Labidochromis mbenjii "Ababi Island" is the Ababi Island population of Labidochromis mbenjii, 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 Labidochromis mbenjii, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Ababi Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Labidochromis mbenjii is a small rock-dwelling mbuna endemic to Lake Malawi, described in 1982 by Digby Lewis and named for the Mbenji Islands, the central-lake island group it calls home. One of the smaller members of the forceps-toothed genus that includes the famous 'yellow lab' (Labidochromis caeruleus), it is a quiet invertebrate-picker of the boulder zone. Tied closely to the reefs around a single island group, it is a localised endemic rarely seen far from its Mbenji home — either in the lake or in the hobby.

Full Labidochromis mbenjii account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Labidochromis mbenjii "Ababi Island"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Labidochromis mbenjii Lewis, 1982 (valid name, authorship, type data)
  3. FishBase — Labidochromis mbenjii Lewis, 1982 (SpecCode 2336; size, distribution, temperature, eponymy)
  4. Lewis, D.S.C., 1982 — A revision of the genus Labidochromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 75(3):189–265 (original description)
  5. Maréchal, C., 1991 — Labidochromis, in Check-list of the Freshwater Fishes of Africa (CLOFFA) vol. 4, pp. 210–217
  6. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae: Labidochromis (etymology of genus and epithets)
  7. IUCN Red List — Labidochromis mbenjii "Ababi Island"
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