Maylandia xanthos "Lumbaulo"

Lumbauloloom-bah-OO-loh (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 xanthos account →

Specific to Lumbaulo

  • 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 xanthos.

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in11 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 339 ppm
Depth7–49 ft2–15 m
DietAufwuchs grazer (algae, diatoms, and associated micro-invertebrates)
BreedingMaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this species; expected modest by genus comparison
Sexual dimorphismYesMales in full breeding condition likely show the most saturated golden colouration; females and non-breeding fish likely somewhat duller. Species-specific detail not well documented.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Lumbaulo population

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

Colour reference: living Lumbaulo fish at malawi.si

About the species

Maylandia xanthos is a golden-yellow rock-dwelling mbuna documented from the Lumbaulo locality on Lake Malawi's northern shore, a member of the Maylandia genus that carries the classic "zebra mbuna" body plan — deep, laterally compressed, and blunt-snouted — built for grazing algae off sunlit rock. Its epithet, straightforwardly Greek for "yellow," names the trait that sets it apart in a genus otherwise dominated by blue-and-black barred patterns: a warm, saturated golden colouration rather than the striped livery most people picture when they think of a Malawi zebra mbuna.

Full Maylandia xanthos account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Maylandia xanthos "Lumbaulo"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — species search portal (California Academy of Sciences)
  3. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)