Mylochromis melanonotus "Luwala Reef"
Mylochromis melanonotus (Chimwalani Reef, Londo Bay, Luwala Reef)
Luwala Reef — loo-WAH-lah 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 Mylochromis melanonotus account →Specific to Luwala 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 Mylochromis melanonotus.
The Luwala Reef population
Mylochromis melanonotus "Luwala Reef" is the Luwala Reef population of Mylochromis melanonotus, 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 melanonotus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Luwala Reef 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 →