Lethrinops oculatus "Mdowa"
Mdowa — m-DOH-wah (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 oculatus account →Specific to Mdowa
- 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 oculatus.
The Mdowa population
Lethrinops oculatus "Mdowa" is the Mdowa population of Lethrinops oculatus, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Lethrinops oculatus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mdowa fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Lethrinops oculatus is a sand-dwelling haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, named for conspicuously large eyes among the sand-sifting fish of its genus. Described by Charles Tate Regan in his foundational 1922 revision of the lake's cichlid fauna, it is documented here from Chesese and Mdowa, two shallow sandy sites near the northern town of Karonga that have long been standard collection points for the lake's northern sand cichlid community.
Full Lethrinops oculatus account →