Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia callainos

Maylandia callainos "Nakantenga Island"

Nakantenga Island — nah-kahn-TEHN-gah 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 callainos account →

Specific to Nakantenga 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 callainos.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.9 in15 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth0–82 ft0–25 m
DietGrazes aufwuchs from rock; opportunistic planktivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~20–40 fry per brood (genus-typical estimate; not formally measured for this species — FLAGGED)
Sexual dimorphismYesWeak by mbuna standards: both sexes are unbarred and pale blue/white, lacking the strong colour split seen in barred zebras. Territorial males are the most saturated cobalt blue with anal-fin egg spots; females occur as light-blue (cobalt) or white ('pearl') morphs and are duller.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nakantenga Island population

Maylandia callainos "Nakantenga Island" is the Nakantenga Island population of Maylandia callainos, 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 callainos, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Nakantenga Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

The cobalt blue zebra is one of the most recognizable mbuna in the aquarium trade — a small Lake Malawi rock-dweller in which males glow an even turquoise-blue, with no trace of the dark vertical bars that mark most of its relatives. Native only to the Nkhata Bay region, it has been famous since the hobby's earliest days for a quieter reason too: it is one of a handful of mbuna that humans, not geology, moved around the lake, making it a textbook case of how cichlid populations diverge after transplantation.

Full Maylandia callainos account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia callainos "Nakantenga Island"
  2. Stauffer & Hert (1992): Pseudotropheus callainos, a new species of mbuna (Cichlidae), with analyses of changes associated with two intra-lacustrine transplantations in Lake Malawi (original description, PDF)
  3. Stauffer, Bowers, Kellogg & McKaye (1997): A revision of the blue-black Pseudotropheus zebra complex, with a description of the new genus Metriaclima and ten new species
  4. FishBase — Maylandia callainos summary page
  5. malawi.si (The Cichlids of Lake Malawi) — Maylandia callainos 'Nkhata Bay' (size, depth, habitat, distribution, colour morphs)
  6. GBIF — Maylandia callainos (Stauffer & Hert, 1992)