Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Lepidiolamprologus profundicola

Lepidiolamprologus profundicola "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 Lepidiolamprologus profundicola 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 Lepidiolamprologus profundicola.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size12 in30.5 cm total length
Temperature75–79 °F24–26 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth16–328 ft5–100 m
DietPiscivore; preys mainly on young cichlids (including Cyprichromis) and other small fish; trophic level 4.2.
BreedingOpen rock-face substrate spawner; harem polygynist with lunar-cued spawning cycle.Not published; eggs laid on open rock face, then moved to a cave entrance by the guarding female after ~3–4 days.
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong size dimorphism: females 25–40% shorter than males. No strong color difference between sexes.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mvuna Island population

Lepidiolamprologus profundicola "Mvuna Island" is the Mvuna Island population of Lepidiolamprologus profundicola, 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 Lepidiolamprologus profundicola, 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

Lepidiolamprologus profundicola is one of the largest of the lamprologine cichlids, a deep-dwelling piscivore endemic to Lake Tanganyika that hunts smaller fish across sediment-dusted rocky slopes. Its name means roughly "deep-water scaled bright hare," and it lives up to the first part: it routinely ranges deeper than its better-known relatives. Drab beige and small-eyed where flashier cichlids are gaudy, it earns attention instead through size, speed, and a lunar-timed spawning routine in which a single female holds the fort while the male moves on.

Full Lepidiolamprologus profundicola account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Lepidiolamprologus profundicola "Mvuna Island"
  2. FishBase: Lepidiolamprologus profundicola (Poll, 1949)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — species record (CAS)
  4. Sturmbauer et al. 2010, Evolutionary history of the cichlid tribe Lamprologini (Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.)
  5. Kullander & Karlsson: Lepidiolamprologus kamambae, a new species (genus context)