Maylandia lombardoi "Nkhomo Reef"
Nkhomo Reef — n-KOH-moh REEF (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 lombardoi account →Specific to Nkhomo Reef
- 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 lombardoi.
The Nkhomo Reef population
Maylandia lombardoi "Nkhomo Reef" is the Nkhomo Reef population of Maylandia lombardoi, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Maylandia lombardoi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Nkhomo Reef fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Maylandia lombardoi, the Kenyi, is a rock-dwelling mbuna endemic to a single cluster of reefs in central Lake Malawi. It is famous on two counts: a reversed colour scheme in which adult males turn a uniform canary yellow while females and juveniles stay barred steel-blue — the opposite of the usual cichlid arrangement — and a temper so fierce that hobbyists routinely list it among the most belligerent fish the lake exports. Behind the bright male is one of Malawi's smaller, narrow-range endemics, restricted to Mbenji Island and the adjacent Nkhomo Reef.
Full Maylandia lombardoi account →Sources
- malawi.si — Maylandia lombardoi "Nkhomo Reef"
- FishBase — Maylandia lombardoi (Kenyi cichlid)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — lombardoi (species record, via FishBase link)
- malawi.si — Maylandia lombardoi 'Mbenji Island' (Konings / Stuart M. Grant database)
- malawi.si — Mbenji Island (locality, GPS data)
- The ETYFish Project — Pseudocrenilabrinae (l–o): Maylandia lombardoi etymology