Nimbochromis livingstonii "Jalo Reef"
Jalo Reef — JAH-loh 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 Nimbochromis livingstonii account →Specific to Jalo 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 Nimbochromis livingstonii.
The Jalo Reef population
Nimbochromis livingstonii "Jalo Reef" is the Jalo Reef population of Nimbochromis livingstonii, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Nimbochromis livingstonii, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Jalo Reef fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Nimbochromis livingstonii, Livingston's cichlid, is a large, boldly blotched predatory haplochromine endemic to Lake Malawi, its outflowing upper Shire River, and Lake Malombe. It is the most famous of the Malawi 'haps' for one extraordinary trick: the fish lies on its side in the sediment, its mottled brown-and-cream pattern mimicking a rotting carcass, and waits — when a small cichlid swims in to scavenge the apparent corpse, the 'dead' predator lunges to life. Maltese-Malawian fishermen christened it kalingono, the 'sleeper,' long before science put a name to the behaviour, which biologists call death-feigning. Like all of its genus it is a maternal mouthbrooder, and it has been a staple of the larger-cichlid hobby for half a century.
Full Nimbochromis livingstonii account →Sources
- malawi.si — Nimbochromis livingstonii "Jalo Reef"
- FishBase — Nimbochromis livingstonii (Günther, 1894)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Hemichromis livingstonii Günther 1894 (valid as Nimbochromis livingstonii)
- McKaye, K.R. 1981 — 'Field observation on death feigning: a unique hunting behavior by the predatory cichlid, Haplochromis livingstoni, of Lake Malawi' (Environmental Biology of Fishes 6: 361–365)
- malawi.si (Stuart M. Grant / M.K. Oliver database) — Nimbochromis livingstonii: biotope, breeding & 'kaligono' notes
- Eccles, D.H. & Trewavas, E. 1989 — Malawian Cichlid Fishes: A Classification of Some Haplochromine Genera (erection of Nimbochromis); via Catalog of Fishes