Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Melanochromis robustus

Melanochromis robustus "Chinyankwazi Island"

Chinyankwazi Island — cheen-yahn-KWAH-zee EYE-land (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 robustus account →

Specific to Chinyankwazi Island

  • 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 robustus.

IUCNNEAR THREATENED · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.9 in12.4 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth16 ft5 m
DietGrazes aufwuchs / omnivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderGenus-typical, on the order of a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong sexual dichromatism: breeding males dark blue-black with light-blue horizontal stripes plus dark vertical bars and anal-fin egg-spots; females and non-breeding fish muted gray to gray-green with a black mid-lateral stripe
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chinyankwazi Island population

Melanochromis robustus "Chinyankwazi Island" is the Chinyankwazi Island population of Melanochromis robustus, 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 robustus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Chinyankwazi Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Melanochromis robustus is the heavyweight of its genus, a stout mbuna endemic to just two rocky islets in southern Lake Malawi. Described from the aquarium trade in 1985 under the apt title "Lake Malawi's monster Melanochromis," it pairs an unusual breeding-male pattern, dark blue overlaid with both light horizontal stripes and vertical bars, with one of the smallest known ranges of any Malawi cichlid. That pinhead distribution, confined to the waters of a national park, is the reason a fish that looks robust on paper is quietly listed as Near Threatened.

Full Melanochromis robustus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Melanochromis robustus "Chinyankwazi Island"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Melanochromis robustus (species record)
  3. FishBase: Melanochromis robustus summary
  4. FishBase: All fishes reported from Malawi (checklist)
  5. Konings & Stauffer (2012), Review of the Lake Malawi genus Melanochromis, Zootaxa 3258 (Plazi treatment of M. robustus)
  6. Konings & Stauffer (2012), Zootaxa 3258:1-27 (reference record)