Neolamprologus tretocephalus "Mkuyu"
Mkuyu — m-KOO-yoo (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 tretocephalus account →Specific to Mkuyu
- 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 tretocephalus.
The Mkuyu population
Neolamprologus tretocephalus "Mkuyu" is the Mkuyu population of Neolamprologus tretocephalus, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Neolamprologus tretocephalus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mkuyu fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Neolamprologus tretocephalus, the five-bar cichlid, is a stocky rock-dweller endemic to the northern half of Lake Tanganyika, instantly recognizable by the five bold black bars on a pearly blue-grey body. It is a snail-crushing carnivore of the shallow rocky shore and a famously belligerent fish, capable of holding territory against far larger tankmates. Long mistaken for a peaceful dwarf because of its modest size, it is in fact one of the more uncompromising lamprologines an aquarist can keep.
Full Neolamprologus tretocephalus account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus tretocephalus "Mkuyu"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Neolamprologus tretocephalus
- FishBase: Neolamprologus tretocephalus (Boulenger, 1899)
- GBIF: Neolamprologus tretocephalus
- Encyclopedia of Life: Neolamprologus tretocephalus
- O'Reilly et al. 2003, Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika (Nature; PubMed)