Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia sp. "Zebra Mbowe"

Maylandia sp. "Zebra Mbowe" "Mbowe Island"Metriaclima sp. "Zebra Mbowe"

Maylandia sp. "Zebra Mbowe" (Mbowe Island)

Mbowe Island — m-BOH-weh 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. "Zebra Mbowe" account →

Specific to Mbowe 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. "Zebra Mbowe".

CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesMaylandia greshakeidescribed as Pseudotropheus (Maylandia) greshakei Meyer & Förster 1984
Scientific size4.5 in11 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 446 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth10–66 ft3–20 m
DietAufwuchs grazer (algae, diatoms and associated micro-invertebrates scraped from rock)
BreedingMaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this population
Sexual dimorphismYesExpected zebra-type pattern: males blue with dark vertical bars; females variable, potentially blue-barred or orange-blotched depending on the population. Not documented in detail for Mbowe Island specifically
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mbowe Island population

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

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

About the species

Maylandia sp. "Zebra Mbowe" is a zebra-type mbuna recorded at Mbowe Island, on the northern Malawian shore of Lake Malawi. It resembles the well-known described species Maylandia zebra closely enough to be called by that name in the trade, but it is listed here as an undescribed "sp." form rather than as a confirmed locality population of true M. zebra, in keeping with the common hobby and field practice of holding zebra-pattern populations open pending closer comparison. It has no describing author, no FishBase record, and no IUCN assessment.

Full Maylandia sp. "Zebra Mbowe" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia sp. "Zebra Mbowe" "Mbowe Island"
  2. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 5th ed. (Cichlid Press)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Maylandia zebra (species record; this trade name has no separate catalog entry)
Add this species card to your site

Paste this into a product listing, club page or blog post. It shows this species’ size, water ranges and conservation status, kept current from the atlas, with a link to this page. Free to use; keep the link intact, as it is the attribution. How the card works.

<div data-atlas="species/maylandia-sp-zebra-mbowe-mbowe-island"><a href="https://www.aquaristatlas.com/species/maylandia-sp-zebra-mbowe-mbowe-island/">Maylandia sp. "Zebra Mbowe" "Mbowe Island" on Aquarist Atlas</a></div>
<script src="https://www.aquaristatlas.com/embed/v1/card.js" async referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></script>