Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Melanochromis lepidiadaptes

Melanochromis lepidiadaptes "Makanjila Point"

Melanochromis lepidiadaptes (Makanjila Point)

Makanjila Point — mah-kahn-JEE-lah POYNT (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 lepidiadaptes account →

Specific to Makanjila Point

  • 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 lepidiadaptes.

IUCNCRITICALLY ENDANGERED · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesMelanochromis melanopterusTrewavas 1935
Scientific size5 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 179 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth3–16 ft1–5 m
DietOpportunistic predator: rasps scales from other fishes (especially netted individuals) and feeds on the eggs and larvae of the catfish Bagrus meridionalis; not an aufwuchs grazer despite the mbuna body plan
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderNot documented; presumed a few dozen eggs, genus-typical for a small Melanochromis
Sexual dimorphismYesPronounced. Breeding males are silvery to light blue with a golden sheen behind the head and a black caudal-peduncle blotch, losing the dark transverse bars of females and juveniles; females retain a barred pattern with a dark trailing edge to the tail.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Makanjila Point population

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

Colour reference: living Makanjila Point fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Melanochromis lepidiadaptes is a small rock-dwelling mbuna cichlid known from a single rocky promontory on Lake Malawi's eastern shore. Its name advertises its oddest trait: a habit of rasping scales from other fishes, a feeding mode rare among Malawi cichlids and one the species combines with raiding the eggs and larvae of a large catfish. With a wild range of only a dozen square kilometres, it is also one of the lake's most narrowly distributed cichlids and a textbook case of a fish whose conservation hinges on a single reef.

Full Melanochromis lepidiadaptes account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Melanochromis lepidiadaptes "Makanjila Point"
  2. FishBase: Melanochromis lepidiadaptes
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (California Academy of Sciences)
  4. GBIF: Melanochromis lepidiadaptes Bowers & Stauffer, 1997
  5. Bowers & Stauffer (1997), Eight new species of rock-dwelling cichlids of the genus Melanochromis (PDF)
  6. Ribbink et al. (1983) and Konings (1995) as cited in the IUCN assessment
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