Otopharynx styrax "Manda"
Manda — MAHN-dah (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 Otopharynx styrax account →Specific to Manda
- 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 Otopharynx styrax.
The Manda population
Otopharynx styrax "Manda" is the Manda population of Otopharynx styrax, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Otopharynx styrax, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Manda fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Otopharynx styrax is a Lake Malawi haplochromine documented from a scatter of localities running most of the length of the lake, from Manda in the north to Masinje and Ntekete on the central-southern shore. It belongs to Otopharynx, a genus of mid-water and sand-associated cichlids that includes some of the lake's more strikingly coloured haps, several of which forage for zooplankton well off the bottom rather than sifting sand or grazing rock. Its precise ecological role and colour pattern are not fully documented in the sources available for this article, and this account is written with that limitation in mind.
Full Otopharynx styrax account →