Maylandia sp. "Daktari" "Undu Reef"

Undu ReefOON-doo 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 sp. "Daktari" account →

Specific to Undu 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 sp. "Daktari".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in11 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth10–72 ft3–22 m
DietAufwuchs grazer (herbivore; genus-typical for zebra-complex Maylandia)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygynous; no pair bond)not documented for this form; genus-typical broods run roughly 10-30 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesColour not documented for this specific form; zebra-complex Maylandia males typically show blue ground colour with dark vertical barring, females plainer.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Undu Reef population

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

Colour reference: living Undu Reef fish at malawi.si

About the species

Maylandia sp. "Daktari" is an undescribed rock-dwelling mbuna recorded from a short stretch of Lake Malawi's shoreline where the Mozambican and Tanzanian waters meet. It circulates in the hobby and on the malawi.si database purely under this trade name, borrowed from the Swahili word for "doctor," with no formal scientific description behind it. Like every zebra-complex Maylandia it is presumed to be an algae-grazing rock specialist and a maternal mouthbrooder, but very little has been published about this particular population beyond its four recorded collection points, and its colouration has not been documented in the sources available here.

Full Maylandia sp. "Daktari" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia sp. "Daktari" "Undu Reef"
  2. malawi.si — Maylandia sp. "Daktari" locality records (Konings/Bauer database)
  3. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)
  4. Cichlid Room Companion — Lake Malawi cichlid reference (Ad Konings et al.)