Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Lethrinops lunaris

Lethrinops lunaris "Senga Bay"

Senga Bay — SEHN-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 Lethrinops lunaris account →

Specific to Senga 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 Lethrinops lunaris.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7.3 in18.6 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth7–49 ft2–15 m
DietSand-sifting benthic invertivore (small invertebrates and insect larvae sifted from shallow sandy bottoms)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (lek-spawning inferred from genus; males defend a sand site)not documented for L. lunaris; sand-dwelling Lethrinops congeners typically carry a few dozen eggs/fry
Sexual dimorphismNot documentedNot firmly documented for this species; Lethrinops are typically seasonally dimorphic, with colourful nuptial males and plain silvery females.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Senga Bay population

Lethrinops lunaris "Senga Bay" is the Senga Bay population of Lethrinops lunaris, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Lethrinops lunaris, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Senga Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Lethrinops lunaris is a sand-sifting haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, described by Ethelwynn Trewavas in 1931 from the lake's early scientific survey. Its name — 'of the moon' — refers to the deeply lunate, crescent-cut tail that set it apart from the related Lethrinops leptodon. A fish of shallow water off sandy beaches, it works the open bottom for buried invertebrates in the manner shared by all the lake's sand-dwellers.

Full Lethrinops lunaris account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Lethrinops lunaris "Senga Bay"
  2. FishBase — Lethrinops lunaris Trewavas, 1931
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lethrinops lunaris (species record; authorship & status)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lethrinops (genus record)
  5. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae): Lethrinops lunaris etymology ('of the moon', for the deeply emarginate caudal fin vs L. leptodon)
  6. Trewavas, E. 1931/1935. The cichlid fishes of Lake Nyasa (original description context; via CRC bibliography)