Paracyprichromis nigripinnis "Mvuna Island"
Mvuna Island — m-VOO-nah EYE-land (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 Paracyprichromis nigripinnis account →Specific to Mvuna Island
- 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 Paracyprichromis nigripinnis.
The Mvuna Island population
Paracyprichromis nigripinnis "Mvuna Island" is the Mvuna Island population of Paracyprichromis nigripinnis, 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 Paracyprichromis nigripinnis, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mvuna Island fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Paracyprichromis nigripinnis, the "blue neon" of Lake Tanganyika, is a small rock-dwelling cichlid that trades the open-water schooling of its Cyprichromis cousins for a life tucked into caves and under ledges. Its signature trick is behavioral: territorial males hang and feed upside-down in shaded recesses, their flanks ribboned with electric-blue and violet stripes that only ignite under dim light. A peaceful maternal mouthbrooder endemic to the lake, it is prized by Tanganyikan specialists and assessed as Least Concern, even as the lake it depends on faces mounting climate and shoreline pressures.
Full Paracyprichromis nigripinnis account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Paracyprichromis nigripinnis "Mvuna Island"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Paracyprichromis nigripinnis
- FishBase: Paracyprichromis nigripinnis (Boulenger, 1901)
- IRMNG: Paracyprichromis Poll, 1986
- Takahashi, T. (2004). Phylogenetic analysis of Cyprichromini and validation of the genus Paracyprichromis. Ichthyological Research 51:1–4
- Kuwamura, T. (1986). Parental care and mating systems of cichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika. J. Ethol. 4:129–146 (cited via IUCN assessment)