Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia tarakiki

Maylandia tarakiki "Higga Reef"

Higga Reef — HEE-gah 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 tarakiki account →

Specific to Higga 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 tarakiki.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.5 in14 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth3–49 ft1–15 m
DietAufwuchs grazer (diatoms, cyanobacteria, short algal filaments); opportunistic planktivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderNot formally published; habitat-typical estimate 15–30 fry [FLAGGED: unverified]
Sexual dimorphismYesMales blue-white with 7–9 black lateral bars; females light brown or OB (orange blotch). OB males also occur. Body depth differs: males average shallower (28.8% SL) than M. zebra females.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Higga Reef population

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

Colour reference: living Higga Reef fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Maylandia tarakiki is a slender, rock-dwelling mbuna from a handful of boulder reefs along the Tanzanian shore of Lake Malawi, where it ranks among the most abundant cichlids in the shallows. Males wear the classic blue-and-black-barred livery of the zebra complex but with a noticeably narrower, more stream-lined build than their close relatives — a shape the describers immortalised in a Swahili name meaning 'slim.' Its population is entirely confined to Tanzania, and the orange-blotched females that dominate hobby imports have made it a quietly popular, if seldom correctly named, aquarium fish.

Full Maylandia tarakiki account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia tarakiki "Higga Reef"
  2. Stauffer, J.R., Black, K. & Konings, A.F. — 'Descriptions of five new species of Metriaclima (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malaŵi, Africa' (Zootaxa 3647(1):101-136, 2013)
  3. Plazi TreatmentBank — Metriaclima tarakiki Stauffer, Black & Konings, 2013 (taxonomic treatment)
  4. FishBase — Maylandia tarakiki (Stauffer, Black & Konings, 2013)
  5. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Metriaclima tarakiki species record (spid=72760)
  6. malawi.si — Maylandia tarakiki 'Higga Reef' species page (Gregor Bauer)