Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia staufferi

Maylandia sp. "Msobo" "Lundu"

Lundu — LOON-doo (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 staufferi account →

Specific to Lundu

  • 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 staufferi.

IUCNNOT EVALUATED
NEnot on the EX–LC scale
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in12 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth23–82 ft7–25 m
DietAufwuchs (algae) grazer
BreedingMaternal mouthbroodermodest; ~20-30 eggs (genus-typical; larger females carry more)
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong and developmental: juveniles and adult females are uniform bright orange-yellow, while maturing males switch to dark speckled blue-black. No OB/piebald morph is reported — a clean blue-male / yellow-female dichromatism.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Lundu population

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

Colour reference: living Lundu fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Maylandia staufferi — sold across the hobby simply as the 'Msobo Magunga' — is a small rock-dwelling cichlid (mbuna) from the north-eastern, Tanzanian shore of Lake Malawi. It is one of the lake's many well-known but still-undescribed species: there is no valid binomial 'Maylandia msobo', and the fish carries no formal authority or year. Its appeal is a dramatic sexual dichromatism delivered with a twist — every juvenile and every adult female is a clean orange-yellow, while maturing males abandon that colour entirely and turn a dark, speckled blue-black, so that a tank of look-alike youngsters slowly resolves itself into two utterly different-looking sexes.

Full Maylandia staufferi account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia sp. "Msobo" "Lundu"
  2. malawi.si (Stuart Grant / M.K. Oliver database, Ad Konings) — Maylandia sp. 'msobo' Magunga (biotope, depth 7-25 m, distribution Cape Kaiser-Lundu, dimorphism, diet, generic placement)
  3. malawi.si — Maylandia sp. 'msobo' (genus index page; Pombo Rocks and other populations)
  4. malawi.si — Magunga location page, Lake Malawi, Tanzania (GPS center -12.06056, 34.593185)
  5. malawi.si — Maylandia sp. 'msobo heteropictus' Ndonga (southern sister form; distribution barrier Njambe-Lundu)
  6. malawi.si — Malawi Cichlid Species List (A-Z): Metriaclima sp. 'msobo' listed as an undescribed form