Melanochromis heterochromis "Zimbawe Rock"
Zimbawe Rock — zim-BAH-way ROK (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 Melanochromis heterochromis account →Specific to Zimbawe Rock
- 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 Melanochromis heterochromis.
The Zimbawe Rock population
Melanochromis heterochromis "Zimbawe Rock" is the Zimbawe Rock population of Melanochromis heterochromis, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Melanochromis heterochromis, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Zimbawe Rock fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Melanochromis heterochromis is a rock-dwelling mbuna documented from a cluster of islands and reefs in the southern part of Lake Malawi, including Mumbo Island, Domwe-adjacent Zimbawe Rock and the twin islands of Chinyamwezi and Chinyankwazi. Its species name, from the Greek for 'different colour,' places it in a genus long recognised for exactly that trait: Melanochromis is the mbuna group whose horizontal-striped pattern and pronounced male-female colour divergence stand apart from the vertically barred zebra-type cichlids that dominate much of the lake's rocky shoreline.
Full Melanochromis heterochromis account →