Maylandia pyrsonotos "Mkondiwa Reef"
Mkondiwa Reef — m-kohn-DEE-wah 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 pyrsonotos account →Specific to Mkondiwa 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 pyrsonotos.
The Mkondiwa Reef population
Maylandia pyrsonotos "Mkondiwa Reef" is the Mkondiwa Reef population of Maylandia pyrsonotos, 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 pyrsonotos, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mkondiwa Reef fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Maylandia pyrsonotos is a rock-dwelling mbuna from the southeastern arm of Lake Malawi, part of the large Maylandia (often still called Metriaclima) radiation that gives the lake its reputation for reef-by-reef colour variation. Its species name, built from the Greek for "fire" and "back," points straight at the fish's diagnostic mark — a warm reddish or orange flush along the dorsal region of breeding males, set against the blue body ground colour typical of the genus. Like its relatives it is a territorial algae grazer that never strays far from its home reef.
Full Maylandia pyrsonotos account →