Lethrinops sp. "Zebra" "Nkhata Bay"
Nkhata Bay — n-KAH-tah BAY (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. "Zebra" account →Specific to Nkhata Bay
- 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. "Zebra".
The Nkhata Bay population
Lethrinops sp. "Zebra" "Nkhata Bay" is the Nkhata Bay population of Lethrinops sp. "Zebra", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Lethrinops sp. "Zebra", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Nkhata Bay fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Lethrinops sp. "Zebra" is an undescribed sand-dwelling cichlid recorded at Nkhata Bay on Lake Malawi's northern west shore. The name is worth a note of caution: "zebra" is also the long-standing common name for the unrelated, rock-dwelling Maylandia (formerly Pseudotropheus) zebra complex, and the two should not be confused — this is a sand-sifting Lethrinops, not a mbuna. Within Lethrinops, a barred pattern of the kind the name implies does turn up in breeding males of a few species, but no formal colour description exists for this specific form.
Full Lethrinops sp. "Zebra" account →