Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Maylandia xanstomachus

Maylandia xanstomachus "Nakantenga Island"

Nakantenga Island — nah-kahn-TEHN-gah 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 xanstomachus account →

Specific to Nakantenga 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 xanstomachus.

IUCNNEAR THREATENED · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.9 in12.5 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth7–39 ft2–12 m
DietAufwuchs grazer (algae, diatoms, cyanobacteria from rocky substrate)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~20–60 eggs (typical for Maylandia of similar size; species-specific count not documented in primary literature)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales are larger (to ~13 cm wild) and vivid blue with a diagnostic yellow throat, chest, and anal-fin ocelli; females are smaller (~11 cm), drab brown-grey with no yellow coloration.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nakantenga Island population

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

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

About the species

Maylandia xanstomachus is a compact, rock-hugging mbuna endemic to a handful of islands and rocky outcrops in the southern arm of Lake Malawi — a range so narrow that the entire wild population fits within perhaps 540 km² of open water. Males wear a blue-grey body lit up by a butter-yellow throat and chest, a colour badge honest enough to give the species its name: Greek for 'yellow throat.' Like all mbuna it is a serial grazier of aufwuchs, belligerent in defence of a spawning cave, and a maternal mouthbrooder that does all its parental work in one parent's jaw.

Full Maylandia xanstomachus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia xanstomachus "Nakantenga Island"
  2. Stauffer, J.R. Jr. & J.M. Boltz (1989). Description of a rock-dwelling cichlid (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 102(1):8–13
  3. FishBase — Maylandia xanstomachus (Stauffer & Boltz, 1989)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Maylandia xanstomachus (species record)
  5. GBIF — Maylandia xanstomachus (Stauffer & Boltz, 1989); GBIF taxon key 2372984
  6. The ETYFish Project — Family CICHLIDAE: Subfamily PSEUDOCRENILABRINAE (l–o): Maylandia xanstomachus etymology