Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia flavicauda

Maylandia flavicauda "Zimbawe Rock"

Zimbawe Rock — zim-BAH-way ROK (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 flavicauda account →

Specific to Zimbawe Rock

  • 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 flavicauda.

IUCNVULNERABLE · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4 in10.1 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth262 ft80 m
DietGrazes aufwuchs from rock
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderSmall brood of a few dozen (genus-typical; not documented for this species)
Sexual dimorphismYesTerritorial males light blue with 5-6 black bars, black head with pale-blue interorbital bars, black pelvic and anal fins (4-6 yellow egg-spots), black dorsal with yellow-orange tip, and a clean yellow caudal fin; females and non-territorial fish plain beige to brown with blue-green highlights and a yellow-green opercular spot.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Zimbawe Rock population

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

Colour reference: living Zimbawe Rock fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Maylandia flavicauda is a slender, rock-grazing mbuna cichlid known from just two small reefs in the southern arm of Lake Malawi. Described only in 2016, it had circulated for decades among ichthyologists and hobbyists as the "elongatus yellow tail," a name that nods to the lemon-yellow caudal fin of breeding males set against a barred, electric-blue body. With a world range that may span no more than eight square kilometres, it is one of the lake's many narrow endemics — abundant where it lives, but living almost nowhere.

Full Maylandia flavicauda account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia flavicauda "Zimbawe Rock"
  2. Li, S., Konings, A.F. & Stauffer, J.R. Jr. (2016), 'A revision of the Pseudotropheus elongatus species group (Teleostei: Cichlidae) with description of a new genus and seven new species', Zootaxa 4168(2):353–381 — original description (Plazi treatment, open access)
  3. Li, Konings & Stauffer (2016), Zootaxa 4168(2) — abstract / PubMed record
  4. A Revision of the Pseudotropheus elongatus species group — paper page (ResearchGate)
  5. Ribbink, A.J. et al. (1983), 'A preliminary survey of the cichlid fishes of rocky habitats in Lake Malawi', South African Journal of Zoology 18:149–310 (cited for diet/habitat)
  6. FishBase — Maylandia flavicauda (size, meristics, diagnosis, distribution, IUCN status)