Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus calliurus

Neolamprologus calliurus "Magara"

Magara — mah-GAH-rah (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 Neolamprologus calliurus account →

Specific to Magara

  • 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 Neolamprologus calliurus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size2.4 in6 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8–9alkaline
Depth33–180 ft10–55 m
DietMicro-predator / plankton-picker (zooplankton and micro-invertebrates)
BreedingObligate shell-brooder; polygynous haremSmall, a few dozen eggs laid inside an empty Neothauma snail shell
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong: male markedly larger (~5-6 cm) with pelvic fins drawn out into bluish-white filaments and an ornamented tail; female small (~3.5-4 cm) enough to retreat fully inside the shell.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Magara population

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

Colour reference: living Magara fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Neolamprologus calliurus is a small white-tailed shell-dwelling cichlid of Lake Tanganyika's sandy littoral, where the male spends his life beside a single empty Neothauma snail shell that doubles as fortress and spawning chamber. Long entangled in nomenclatural argument with its close look-alike Neolamprologus brevis — many authorities still treat the two as one species — it is best known to aquarists as the 'Magara' or 'white-tail' shelldweller, a fish in which a 5-cm male, his pelvic fins drawn out into pale filaments, guards a harem of smaller females each tucked into her own shell on the open sand.

Full Neolamprologus calliurus account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus calliurus "Magara"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — calliurus, Lamprologus Boulenger 1906 (current status: valid as Neolamprologus calliurus; full synonymy and type data)
  3. FishBase — Neolamprologus brevis (Boulenger 1899) (calliurus treated under brevis; biology, plankton diet, shell-dweller habit)
  4. Boulenger, G. A., 1906 — 'Fourth contribution to the ichthyology of Lake Tanganyika' (Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 17(6): 537–601) — original description of Lamprologus calliurus
  5. Maréchal, C. & M. Poll, 1991 — Neolamprologus, in Check-list of the freshwater fishes of Africa (CLOFFA) vol. 4 (treats calliurus as a synonym of brevis)
  6. Konings, A., 2015/2019 — Tanganyika Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (lists the species as 'Lamprologus' calliurus; shell-dweller ecology)