Maylandia zebra "Lutara Reef"Zebra mbuna
Maylandia zebra (Boadzulu Island, Border, Cape Maclear, Chemwezi Rocks, Chidunga Rocks, Chiloelo, Chilucha Reef, Chindozwa Point, Chinuni, Chiofu, Chiteko, Chiwi Rocks, Chizumulu Island, Chuanga, Cobwe, Crocodile Rocks, Domwe Island, Gome, Hai Reef, Harbour Island, Hongi Island, Ikombe, Jalo Reef, Kande Island, Kirondo, Likoma Island, Linganjala Reef, Lions Cove, Liuli, Londo Bay, Lumbaulo, Lumessi, Lundu, Lutara Reef, Luwala Reef, Machili Island, Magunga, Maingano Island, Makanjila Rocks, Makokola Reef, Makonde, Mala Point, Maleri Island, Manda, Masasa Reef, Masinje, Mazinzi Reef, Mbamba Islands, Mbuzi Islands, Mbweca Rocks, Membe Island, Meponda, Metangula, Minos Reef, Mitande Reef (Rocks), Mumbo Island, Mundola Point, Nametumbwe, Narungu, Ndonga, Ndumbi Point, Ndumbi Rocks, Ngwasi, Nkhata Bay, Nkhungu Point, Nkhungu Reef, Nkolongwe, Ntekete, Otter Point, Pombo Rocks, Sambia Reef, Sanga, Taiwanee Reef, Thumbi East Island, Thumbi Point, Thumbi West Island, Thundu, Tsano Rock, Tumbi Point, Undu Reef, Zimbawe Rock)
Lutara Reef — loo-TAH-rah 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 zebra account →Specific to Lutara 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 zebra.
The Lutara Reef population
Maylandia zebra "Lutara Reef" is the Lutara Reef population of Maylandia zebra, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Maylandia zebra, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Lutara Reef fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Maylandia zebra, the zebra mbuna, is the archetypal rock-dwelling cichlid of Lake Malawi — a blue fish crossed by bold black bars that grazes the algal turf coating the lake's boulders. It is the namesake of the whole 'zebra complex,' a tangle of closely related, often barely distinguishable mbuna that has become one of the most intensively studied systems in the science of how species form. The fish is also at the centre of a stubborn naming dispute, sold and studied for decades under two competing genus names, Maylandia and Metriaclima, that taxonomists still cannot fully agree on.
Full Maylandia zebra account →Sources
- malawi.si — Maylandia zebra "Lutara Reef"
- FishBase — Maylandia zebra (Zebra mbuna)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — zebra, Tilapia (Boulenger 1899); current status Maylandia zebra
- The ETYFish Project — Pseudocrenilabrinae (l-o): Maylandia / Metriaclima and Maylandia zebra etymology
- Scharpf, C. (2025) — An analysis of the Metriaclima vs. Maylandia (Teleostei: Cichlidae) genus-name dispute (Zootaxa); summary at ETYFish 'Name of the Week'
- Stauffer, Bowers, Kellogg & McKaye (1997) — A revision of the blue-black Pseudotropheus zebra complex from Lake Malawi, with a new genus and ten new species (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 148:189–230)
- IUCN Red List — Maylandia zebra "Lutara Reef"