Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Mylochromis gracilis

Mylochromis gracilis "Senga Bay"

Senga Bay — SEHN-gah BAY (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 Mylochromis gracilis account →

Specific to Senga Bay

  • 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 Mylochromis gracilis.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size8.7 in22 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.5–8.3alkaline
Depth—not recorded
DietPredator — small fishes (mainly cichlids) and invertebrates taken from sand (FishBase)
BreedingMaternal (ovophilous) mouthbrooder; polygynous, no pair bondnot published for this species; several dozen eggs inferred from similarly-sized congeners (FLAGGED as undocumented)
Sexual dimorphismYesGenus-typical: breeding males develop bright nuptial coloration (blue/metallic tones); females and non-breeding males cryptic. Oblique flank stripe not reaching the caudal peduncle present in both sexes. Species-specific dimorphism not separately documented.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Senga Bay population

Mylochromis gracilis "Senga Bay" is the Senga Bay population of Mylochromis gracilis, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Mylochromis gracilis, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Senga Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Mylochromis gracilis is a slender, elongate haplochromine cichlid endemic to the southern reaches of Lake Malawi, where it hunts small fishes — especially other cichlids — and invertebrates over open sand. Described by Ethelwynn Trewavas in 1935 and named for its slim build, it reaches about 22 cm and is one of the more overtly predatory members of its genus. In the aquarium trade it circulates under the name 'Haplochromis torpedo stripe,' a nod to the torpedo-like body and the oblique stripe along its flank.

Full Mylochromis gracilis account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Mylochromis gracilis "Senga Bay"
  2. FishBase — Mylochromis gracilis (Haplochromis torpedo stripe)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Mylochromis gracilis species record (spid 37790; valid; orig. Haplochromis gracilis; type locality Monkey Bay)
  4. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae part 4: Mylochromis gracilis etymology
  5. Trewavas, E. (1935) — A synopsis of the cichlid fishes of Lake Nyasa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (10)16 (original description of Haplochromis gracilis)
  6. Derijst, E. & Snoeks, J. (1992) — Maravichromis Eccles and Trewavas, 1989, a junior synonym of Mylochromis Regan, 1920. Cybium 16(2): 173