Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Nyassachromis prostoma

Nyassachromis prostoma "Nametumbwe"

Nametumbwe — nah-meh-TOOM-bweh (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 Nyassachromis prostoma account →

Specific to Nametumbwe

  • 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 Nyassachromis prostoma.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in11.5 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth0–66 ft0–20 m
DietZooplanktivore; feeds in large mid-water schools on copepods and other zooplankton
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder; male builds sand-castle spawning cone and defends lek territoryNot formally published for this species; genus-typical for small Lake Malawi haplochromines (~20–50 eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males display a dark continuous mid-lateral stripe and intensified coloration; females and non-breeding males are drabber and schooling. Males defend spawning cone territories; females visit to spawn and depart.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nametumbwe population

Nyassachromis prostoma "Nametumbwe" is the Nametumbwe population of Nyassachromis prostoma, 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 Nyassachromis prostoma, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Nametumbwe fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Nyassachromis prostoma is a slender, open-water haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, where it forms large foraging schools above sandy and open-water habitats throughout the lake. What makes it stand apart from the many other plankton-feeding 'utaka' haps is its breeding strategy: males build conspicuous sand-castle spawning cones on the lake floor and defend them in loose leks — a behavior that, combined with a dark lateral stripe, led Konings to pull the species out of the genus Copadichromis and place it, correctly, in Nyassachromis. It is the lake's only known lek-spawning cone-builder outside of the single Copadichromis likomae, making it one of the more behaviorally unusual members of an otherwise morphologically conservative genus.

Full Nyassachromis prostoma account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Nyassachromis prostoma "Nametumbwe"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Nyassachromis prostoma (Trewavas 1935) species record (Updated 19 May 2026)
  3. FishBase — Nyassachromis prostoma (Trewavas, 1935)
  4. GBIF — Nyassachromis prostoma (Trewavas, 1935), taxon key 2370070
  5. The ETYFish Project — Order CICHLIFORMES: Family CICHLIDAE: Subfamily PSEUDOCRENILABRINAE (l-o): Nyassachromis prostoma etymology
  6. Trewavas, E. 1935 — A synopsis of the cichlid fishes of Lake Nyasa. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (Ser. 10) 16(91): 65–118