Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Mylochromis guentheri

Mylochromis guentheri "Chitande Island"

Mylochromis guentheri (Chitande Island)

Chitande Island — chee-TAHN-deh 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 Mylochromis guentheri account →

Specific to Chitande 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 Mylochromis guentheri.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesMylochromis lateristrigadescribed as Chromis lateristriga Günther 1864
Scientific size8 in20 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 536 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth—not recorded
DietBenthic sediment-feeder — feeds from the sediment layer on the substrate (FishBase)
BreedingMaternal (ovophilous) mouthbrooder; polygynous, no pair bondnot published for this species; a few dozen eggs inferred from similarly-sized congeners (FLAGGED as undocumented)
Sexual dimorphismYesGenus-typical: territorial breeding males develop bright nuptial coloration; females and non-breeding males cryptic. Species-specific dimorphism not separately documented.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chitande Island population

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

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

About the species

Mylochromis guentheri is a sand-dwelling haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, where it is widespread. Described by C. Tate Regan in 1922, it forages over sandy bottoms, feeding from the thin layer of sediment on the substrate. Its name honours the nineteenth-century ichthyologist Albert Günther, who had earlier reported this fish under the name of a related species; reaching about 8 in, it is a typical medium-large member of the long-snouted Mylochromis lineage.

Full Mylochromis guentheri account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Mylochromis guentheri "Chitande Island"
  2. FishBase — Mylochromis guentheri (Regan, 1922)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Mylochromis guentheri species record (spid 37794; valid; orig. Haplochromis guentheri)
  4. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae part 4: Mylochromis guentheri etymology (honours A. Günther)
  5. Regan, C.T. (1922) — The cichlid fishes of Lake Nyassa. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (original description of Haplochromis guentheri)
  6. Günther, A. (1864) — Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum, vol. 5 (reported this species as Chromis lateristriga)
  7. IUCN Red List — mylochromis-guentheri
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