Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia sp. "Aurora Bevous"

Maylandia sp. "Aurora Bevous" "Chizumulu Island"

Chizumulu Island — chee-zoo-MOO-loo 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. "Aurora Bevous" account →

Specific to Chizumulu 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. "Aurora Bevous".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4 in10 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 357 ppm
Depth16–82 ft5–25 m
DietAufwuchs grazer & plankton picker (genus-typical)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygynous, male-territorial)Not documented for this form; genus-typical range roughly 12-40 eggs
Sexual dimorphismMinimalPresumed present by resemblance to M. aurora (blue-violet males with orange dorsal flush), but not independently confirmed for this population.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chizumulu Island population

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

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

About the species

Maylandia sp. "Aurora Bevous" is an undescribed mbuna cichlid recorded from Chizumulu Island and nearby Mkanila Bay in the open northeastern reaches of Lake Malawi. Its trade name signals a resemblance to the formally described Maylandia aurora, a blue-bodied mbuna whose males carry a warm orange flush across the back, while marking this population as its own, separately unnamed form. It has never been given a scientific name, and its exact relationship to M. aurora — whether a distinct sister population or a colour variant within the same complex — has not been settled by any published study.

Full Maylandia sp. "Aurora Bevous" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia sp. "Aurora Bevous" "Chizumulu Island"
  2. malawi.si — Maylandia species and locality database
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Maylandia genus overview (Ad Konings, curator)
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; Chizumulu Island mbuna community, Maylandia aurora)