Mylochromis melanonotus "Londo Bay"

Londo BayLOHN-doh 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 melanonotus account →

Specific to Londo 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 melanonotus.

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6.5 in16 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)slightly hardup to 214 ppm
Depth10–115 ft3–35 m
DietSubstrate-associated invertivore; some Mylochromis are durophagous mollusc-crushers
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderNot documented; estimated several dozen eggs by analogy with similarly sized congeners
Sexual dimorphismYesNot well documented for this species; breeding males are expected to intensify in colour as in most Lake Malawi haplochromines.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Londo Bay population

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

Colour reference: living Londo Bay fish at malawi.si

About the species

Mylochromis melanonotus is a sand- and mixed-habitat haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, a member of the large genus Mylochromis whose many species range from open sandy shelves to the transition zones between rock and sand around the lake. Its epithet, Greek for black-backed, points directly to a dark stripe or saddle running along the dorsal surface — a marking pattern that recurs across several Mylochromis species and helps separate the genus's many similar-looking members in the field. It remains a fish known mainly through collection-locality records rather than the general aquarium trade.

Full Mylochromis melanonotus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Mylochromis melanonotus "Londo Bay"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — search interface (authority for the valid name)
  3. FishBase — Mylochromis melanonotus species summary
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)