Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Lethrinops marginatus

Lethrinops marginatus "Itungi"

Itungi — ee-TOON-gee (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 marginatus account →

Specific to Itungi

  • 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 marginatus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.3 in11 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth3–33 ft1–10 m
DietSand-sifting benthic invertivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygynous, lek-spawning)~20–50 eggs (genus-typical; no precise count published for this species — flagged)
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males develop metallic blue-green iridescence on head and body and intensified dark fin borders; females and non-breeding males are plain silvery-grey. Locality variants (e.g. Senga Bay, Chipoka) show subtly different male coloration.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Itungi population

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

Colour reference: living Itungi fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Lethrinops marginatus is a sand-dwelling haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, found across the lake's shallow sandy margins from the northern Tanzania shore to the Mozambican and Malawian coastlines. Described by the German zoologist Ernst Ahl in 1926 from material collected near Langenburg on the lake's northern end, it is one of the more wide-ranging members of a genus famous for sifting invertebrates from the sediment. Males in breeding dress are recognized in the hobby as the 'rounded head' — a reference to the species' distinctly blunt, domed forehead — and are collected in modest numbers for the ornamental trade, particularly from Senga Bay.

Full Lethrinops marginatus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Lethrinops marginatus "Itungi"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lethrinops marginatus Ahl 1926 (spid=38124; valid; syntypes ZMB 23478; type locality near Langenburg, Lake Malawi)
  3. FishBase — Lethrinops marginatus (Lethrinops rounded head; max 11.0 cm SL; demersal, sandy shallows; IUCN LC)
  4. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy — Lethrinops marginatus Ahl, 1926 (taxon key 2372750)
  5. Ahl, E. 1926. Einige neue Fische der Familie Cichlidae aus dem Nyassa-See. Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin 1926: 51–62 — original description
  6. Ngatunga, B.P. & Snoeks, J. 2004. New species and records of Lethrinops from Lake Malawi (Teleostei, Cichlidae) — range extension of L. marginatus documented. Journal of Natural History 38 (2): 255–282