Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia ngarae

Maylandia ngarae "Ngara"

Ngara — n-GAH-rah (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 ngarae account →

Specific to Ngara

  • 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 ngarae.

IUCNNOT EVALUATED
NEnot on the EX–LC scale
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.1 in8 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth33–82 ft10–25 m
DietGrazes algae from rocks and shells and sifts sand for diatoms and small invertebrates; opportunistic over open sand
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (shell-associated)Low; ~3–6 fry per spawning reported in aquaria
Sexual dimorphismMinimalUnusually for the genus, males keep the female-like barred pattern rather than bright blue breeding colour; both sexes brownish/melanic with a black submarginal band and 4–5 bars, males larger.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Ngara population

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

Colour reference: living Ngara fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Maylandia ngarae is an unusual mbuna: a shell-dwelling member of a famously rock-bound genus, endemic to the sandy shallows near Ngara in the north-west of Lake Malawi. Long known to hobbyists as Maylandia sp. 'lanisticola north,' it was formally described in 2021 alongside its near-twin Maylandia gallireyae, and lives over open sand between empty shells of the large Lanistes snail, into which it bolts when threatened. Stockier than the Tanganyikan shell-dwellers it superficially recalls, it forages algae from the scattered rocks and shells around its sandy ground.

Full Maylandia ngarae account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia ngarae "Ngara"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Maylandia ngarae (species record; valid name, authorship Miller, Konings & Stauffer 2021, type locality Ngara)
  3. Miller, T.A., Konings, A.F. & Stauffer, J.R. Jr. 2021 — Descriptions of two new shell-dwelling species of Metriaclima (Cichlidae) from Lake Malaŵi, Africa. Zootaxa 5052(3):419–432 (original description)
  4. Miller, Konings & Stauffer 2021 — Descriptions of two new shell-dwelling species of Metriaclima (open-access record)
  5. GBIF — Maylandia ngarae / Metriaclima ngarae (occurrence and taxonomy)