Maylandia barlowi "Maleri Island"Metriaclima barlowi
Maylandia barlowi (Chidunga Rocks, Luwala Reef, Maleri Island, Mazinzi Reef, Mbenji Island, Nakantenga Island, Nankoma Island, Nkhudzi)
Maleri Island — mah-LEH-ree 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 Maylandia barlowi account →Specific to Maleri 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 Maylandia barlowi.
The Maleri Island population
Maylandia barlowi "Maleri Island" is the Maleri Island population of Maylandia barlowi, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Maylandia barlowi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Maleri Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Maylandia barlowi is a small mbuna cichlid endemic to the southern basin of Lake Malawi, where it clings to a handful of rocky islands and headlands scattered across the intermediate zone between reef and open sand. The males are a warm, saturated golden yellow — an unusual colour among the otherwise blue-and-black mbuna — and the species' story is partly the story of that gold: McKaye and Stauffer described it in 1986 specifically to investigate why any mbuna would evolve such conspicuous coloration, citing the behavioral ichthyologist George Barlow whose earlier work on gold morphs in other cichlids framed the question.
Full Maylandia barlowi account →Sources
- malawi.si — Maylandia barlowi "Maleri Island"
- McKaye, K.R. & Stauffer, J.R. Jr. — 'Description of a Gold Cichlid (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa' (Copeia 1986, no. 4, pp. 870–875)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Maylandia barlowi (McKaye & Stauffer 1986), CAS, updated May 2026
- FishBase — Maylandia barlowi (McKaye & Stauffer, 1986)
- GBIF — Pseudotropheus barlowi McKaye & Stauffer, 1986 (taxon key 2372992); type specimens USNM 274782–274784, NHMUK 1985.10.23.1-4
- Stauffer, J.R., Bowers, N.J., Kellogg, K.A. & McKaye, K.R. — 'A revision of the blue-black Pseudotropheus zebra complex from Lake Malaŵi, Africa, with a description of a new genus and ten new species' (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia 148, 1997, pp. 189–220)
- IUCN Red List — Maylandia barlowi "Maleri Island"