Labidochromis vellicans "Nakantenga Island"
Nakantenga Island — nah-kahn-TEHN-gah 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 vellicans account →Specific to Nakantenga 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 vellicans.
The Nakantenga Island population
Labidochromis vellicans "Nakantenga Island" is the Nakantenga Island population of Labidochromis vellicans, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Labidochromis vellicans, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Nakantenga Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Labidochromis vellicans is the type species of Labidochromis, the genus of small, forceps-mouthed mbuna that Ethelwynn Trewavas erected in 1935 on the strength of this very fish. Its epithet, Latin for plucking or nipping, is a near-perfect description of the genus's signature feeding trick: a narrow, beak-like snout tipped with elongated, forward-leaning teeth that let it pluck small invertebrates from cracks and crevices other mbuna cannot reach. Far less famous than its flashy relative Labidochromis caeruleus, it is the plain, working model on which the whole genus is built.
Full Labidochromis vellicans account →