Lethrinops sp. "Mbenji Deep" "Mbenji Island"
Mbenji Island — m-BEHN-jee EYE-land (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. "Mbenji Deep" account →Specific to Mbenji Island
- 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. "Mbenji Deep".
The Mbenji Island population
Lethrinops sp. "Mbenji Deep" "Mbenji Island" is the Mbenji Island population of Lethrinops sp. "Mbenji Deep", 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. "Mbenji Deep", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mbenji Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Lethrinops sp. "Mbenji Deep" is an undescribed sand-dwelling cichlid recorded from deeper water around Mbenji Island in west-central Lake Malawi. The "Deep" qualifier distinguishes it from shallower-water populations recorded at the same island, a naming convention used across several genera on malawi.si to separate depth-segregated forms sharing one locality. Mbenji Island’s surrounding waters have long been protected by local customary prohibition against fishing, making the site an unusually well-preserved reference point for Lake Malawi’s cichlid fauna. No authority, publication year, FishBase number, or Red List status exists for this form.
Full Lethrinops sp. "Mbenji Deep" account →