Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri"

Maylandia sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri" "Nakantenga Island"

Nakantenga Island — nah-kahn-TEHN-gah 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 sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri" account →

Specific to Nakantenga 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 sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in12 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 357 ppm
Depth7–49 ft2–15 m
DietAufwuchs grazer (genus-typical), scraping algal film and associated invertebrates from rock surfaces.
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygynous, male-territorial; cave/crevice territory presumed)Not documented for this form; genus-typical range for zebra-complex Maylandia runs to several dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesTrade name implies the classic barred blue-and-black zebra pattern; exact bar count and colour detail specific to this Nakantenga population not formally documented.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nakantenga Island population

Maylandia sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri" "Nakantenga Island" is the Nakantenga Island population of Maylandia sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri", 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 sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

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

About the species

Maylandia sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri" is an undescribed rock-dwelling mbuna recorded at Nakantenga Island on Lake Malawi's central-west shore, carrying a trade name — misspelling of "aggressive" included, and kept as recorded rather than silently corrected — built from three separate hobby conventions stacked together: a behavioural qualifier, a reference to the classic Maylandia zebra colour pattern, and a locality tag borrowing the name of the well-known Maleri Islands zebra phenotype. Its actual recorded locality is Nakantenga, not the Maleri Islands themselves; "Maleri" here most likely describes a resemblance in colour type rather than true point of origin.

Full Maylandia sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia sp. "Aggressive Zebra Maleri" "Nakantenga Island"
  2. malawi.si — species and locality database (Konings-based)
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Maylandia genus overview (Ad Konings, curator)
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority)