Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Melanochromis loriae

Melanochromis loriae "Lutara Reef"

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 Melanochromis loriae 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 Melanochromis loriae.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in11.4 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth10–131 ft3–40 m
DietGrazes aufwuchs / omnivore (also takes cichlid fry and catfish eggs; facultative parasite-picking by females)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (polygamous)Not documented in primary literature; genus-typical ~12–40 eggs (FLAGGED)
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong dichromatism: females and juveniles are white to cream with two black horizontal stripes (the "white auratus" pattern); breeding males invert to dark blue/near-black with a light-blue midlateral stripe and a broad black band in the spiny dorsal.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Lutara Reef population

Melanochromis loriae "Lutara Reef" is the Lutara Reef population of Melanochromis loriae, 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 Melanochromis loriae, 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

Melanochromis loriae is a small, rock-dwelling mbuna cichlid found only in the northern half of Lake Malawi, where pale females patrol the reefs in two-toned cream and black while breeding males turn nearly inky blue. Long traded under the name of its junior synonym, Melanochromis parallelus, and confusingly nicknamed the "white auratus," it is best known to ichthyologists for a quirk of its diet: alongside grazing algae it raids cichlid nests for fry and steals catfish eggs, and adult females have been seen picking parasites off larger fishes like a part-time cleaner.

Full Melanochromis loriae account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Melanochromis loriae "Lutara Reef"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Melanochromis parallelus (synonym of M. loriae)
  3. FishBase — Melanochromis loriae summary
  4. GBIF — Melanochromis Trewavas, 1935
  5. WoRMS / Marine Species Traits — Melanochromis loriae Johnson, 1975
  6. Konings & Stauffer (2012), Review of the Lake Malawi genus Melanochromis, Zootaxa 3258:1–27