Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia koningsi

Maylandia koningsi "Maingano Island"Membe Deep

Maylandia koningsi (Likoma Island, Maingano Island, Membe Point)

Maingano Island — mah-een-GAH-noh 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 koningsi account →

Specific to Maingano 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 koningsi.

IUCNNOT EVALUATED
NEnot on the EX–LC scale
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesMaylandia greshakeidescribed as Pseudotropheus (Maylandia) greshakei Meyer & Förster 1984
Scientific size2 in5.7 cm standard length
Temperature73–79 °F23–26 °C
pH7.8–8.6alkaline
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth49 ft15 m
DietAlgae-comber grazing rocky Aufwuchs and associated micro-invertebrates (trophic level ~2.4)
BreedingMaternal (ovophilous) mouthbrooder — inferred from the genusNot recorded; likely small (a dozen to a couple of dozen eggs) given the small adult size
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong: males blue with a dark submarginal dorsal band and no bold flank bars; females entirely brownish-yellow.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Maingano Island population

Maylandia koningsi "Maingano Island" is the Maingano Island population of Maylandia koningsi, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Maylandia koningsi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

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

About the species

Maylandia koningsi is a small, deep-water rock-dwelling mbuna cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, described in 2018 from Membe Point off Likoma Island and named in honour of the cichlid authority Ad Konings. Set apart from its relatives by males that lack the usual bold flank bars and instead show a clean blue body with a dark submarginal band in the dorsal fin, it lives unusually deep for an mbuna, typically below 49 ft. Described in the genus Metriaclima — treated as a synonym of Maylandia by the Catalog of Fishes — it remains little known in the hobby and has not yet been assessed by the IUCN.

Full Maylandia koningsi account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia koningsi "Maingano Island"
  2. FishBase — Maylandia koningsi (Stauffer, 2018) (SpecCode 69828; size, diagnosis, depth, distribution)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Maylandia koningsi (species record spid 75193; original name Metriaclima koningsi, authorship, type locality Membe Point, Likoma Island)
  4. Stauffer, J.R. Jr., 2018 — Description of Metriaclima koningsi, a new species (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malaŵi, Malaŵi, Africa. Zootaxa 4370(1):95–100 (original description)
  5. Description of Metriaclima koningsi (Stauffer, 2018) — PubMed record
  6. Zootaxa — Scantily clad but not naked: an analysis of the Metriaclima vs. Maylandia (Teleostei: Cichlidae) debate (genus nomenclature)
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