Neolamprologus mustax "Mbita Island"
Mbita Island — m-BEE-tah 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 Neolamprologus mustax account →Specific to Mbita 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 Neolamprologus mustax.
The Mbita Island population
Neolamprologus mustax "Mbita Island" is the Mbita Island population of Neolamprologus mustax, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Neolamprologus mustax, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mbita Island fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Neolamprologus mustax is a small, deep-rock cichlid found only in the southern reaches of Lake Tanganyika, where it picks invertebrates from crevices in the rubble below about 20 m (65 ft). Its name nods to the pale "beard" on its chin — a trait shared across every known population — and it sits at the tangled boundary of the lake's yellow Neolamprologus leleupi complex, blurring into intermediate forms toward the Congolese shore. Modestly sized but fiercely territorial, it is a fish for keepers who want an authentic Tanganyikan rock specialist rather than an easy showpiece.
Full Neolamprologus mustax account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus mustax "Mbita Island"
- FishBase: Neolamprologus mustax (Poll, 1978)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Neolamprologus mustax (species record)
- GBIF — Neolamprologus mustax occurrence records (via FishBase)
- Poll, M. (1978). Contribution à la connaissance du genre Lamprologus — original description of Lamprologus mustax (Persée)
- The taxonomic diversity of the cichlid fish fauna of ancient Lake Tanganyika (ResearchGate fulltext)