Oreochromis tanganicae "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 Oreochromis tanganicae 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 Oreochromis tanganicae.
The Mkuyu population
Oreochromis tanganicae "Mkuyu" is the Mkuyu population of Oreochromis tanganicae, 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 Oreochromis tanganicae, 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
Oreochromis tanganicae, the Tanganyika tilapia, is a large maternal mouthbrooder endemic to Lake Tanganyika and the deltas of its larger inflowing rivers. It is the lake's dominant native tilapiine, a fast-growing grazer that browses the algal surface film and forms foraging shoals along sandy and muddy shores. Reaching roughly 16.5 inches (42 cm), it is far better known to East African fishers and fish farmers than to aquarists, and it carries a quiet conservation concern of its own: protecting its genetic identity from escaped, farmed Nile tilapia.
Full Oreochromis tanganicae account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Oreochromis tanganicae "Mkuyu"
- FishBase — Oreochromis tanganicae (Tanganyika tilapia)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (California Academy of Sciences)
- GBIF — Oreochromis tanganicae (Günther, 1894)
- USFWS Ecological Risk Screening Summary — Oreochromis tanganicae
- Bbole et al. (2023), Conservation concerns for Oreochromis tanganicae, Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research