Lethrinops sp. "Auritus Lion" "Lions Cove"
Lethrinops sp. "Auritus Lion" (Lions Cove)
Lions Cove — LY-uhnz KOHV (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 sp. "Auritus Lion" account →Specific to Lions Cove
- 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 sp. "Auritus Lion".
The Lions Cove population
Lethrinops sp. "Auritus Lion" "Lions Cove" is the Lions Cove population of Lethrinops sp. "Auritus Lion", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Lethrinops sp. "Auritus Lion", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Lions Cove fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Lethrinops sp. "Auritus Lion" is an undescribed sand-dwelling cichlid known from a single confirmed observation at Lion's Cove in Lake Malawi: one breeding male, photographed by Ad Konings in May 1995 at a depth of roughly 82 ft. The trade name pairs the genus's best-known bower-builder, Lethrinops auritus, with the locality, reflecting the fact that the fish was recognised as a Lethrinops only by its sand-feeding behaviour and by the shape of the mud-and-sand mounds it built — mounds distinctly different from the true L. auritus bower. No second sighting, no female, and no formal description exist for this form; everything known about it rests on that one encounter.
Full Lethrinops sp. "Auritus Lion" account →