Pallidochromis tokolosh "Narungu"
Narungu — nah-ROON-goo (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 Pallidochromis tokolosh account →Specific to Narungu
- 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 Pallidochromis tokolosh.
The Narungu population
Pallidochromis tokolosh "Narungu" is the Narungu population of Pallidochromis tokolosh, 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 Pallidochromis tokolosh, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Narungu fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Pallidochromis tokolosh is the lone member of its genus: a large, pale, ghost-grey cichlid that lives in the lightless deep water of Lake Malawi, well below the depths divers ever reach. George Turner described it in 1994 from trawl hauls in the lake's southeastern arm, naming it for a goblin of southern African folklore because of its washed-out colour and its life lived in the dark. For three decades it sat awkwardly between the silvery open-water predators Diplotaxodon and Rhamphochromis; only genome-scale work has finally placed it, as the close relative of the deep-water Diplotaxodon it so resembles.
Full Pallidochromis tokolosh account →Sources
- malawi.si — Pallidochromis tokolosh "Narungu"
- Turner, G. F. 1994 — Pallidochromis tokolosh, a new genus and species of deep water cichlid (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa. Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwat. 5(4):377-383 (original description)
- FishBase — Pallidochromis tokolosh (species summary)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Pallidochromis tokolosh (species record; valid, type locality, holotype BMNH 1994.8.11.1)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Pallidochromis (genus record)
- GBIF — Pallidochromis tokolosh Turner, 1994 (taxon and occurrence record)