Lethrinops sp. "Longipinnis Ntekete" "Ntekete"
Ntekete — n-teh-KEH-teh (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. "Longipinnis Ntekete" account →Specific to Ntekete
- 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. "Longipinnis Ntekete".
The Ntekete population
Lethrinops sp. "Longipinnis Ntekete" "Ntekete" is the Ntekete population of Lethrinops sp. "Longipinnis Ntekete", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Lethrinops sp. "Longipinnis Ntekete", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Ntekete fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Lethrinops sp. "Longipinnis Ntekete" is an undescribed sand-dwelling cichlid known only from shallow water on Lake Malawi’s east coast near the village of Ntekete, where it was found in small numbers and where breeding males were first observed defending nests in November 1990. It is named for its resemblance to the described species Lethrinops longipinnis, though field workers recorded it as longer-snouted and shallower-bodied than that species, which is otherwise known only from the southern lake. What sets the form apart is its nest: males build a large sand crater ringed by an elevated wall of turrets, a construction unlike anything else recorded among Malawian haplochromines. No authority, publication year, FishBase number, or Red List status exists for it.
Full Lethrinops sp. "Longipinnis Ntekete" account →