Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Petrotilapia chrysos

Petrotilapia chrysos "Meponda"

Meponda — meh-POHN-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 Petrotilapia chrysos account →

Specific to Meponda

  • 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 Petrotilapia chrysos.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.2 in13.1 cm standard length
Temperature73–82 °F23–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth3–33 ft1–10 m
DietCombs aufwuchs from rock; also forages on plankton in the water column
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~20-40 eggs (genus-typical; not individually documented)
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong and status-linked: territorial males blue-black with 7-10 gray/brown bars, dark blue cheek and black throat; non-territorial males gold (the source of the name); females paler.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Meponda population

Petrotilapia chrysos "Meponda" is the Meponda population of Petrotilapia chrysos, a geographic colour form from the Mozambique coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Petrotilapia chrysos, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Meponda fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Petrotilapia chrysos is a rock-dwelling mbuna endemic to a tiny corner of Lake Malawi — the islands of Chinyamwezi and Chinyankwazi in the lake's southeastern arm. Like all Petrotilapia it is a thick-lipped, tricuspid-toothed aufwuchs grazer that combs the algal felt from sunlit rock, but it is set apart by the gold cast of its non-territorial males, the trait that gave the species its name (Greek chrysos, 'gold'). Described by Stauffer and van Snik in 1996, it belongs to the dark, deeper-water 'Petrotilapia nigra group' and is one of the narrowest-range members of the genus.

Full Petrotilapia chrysos account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Petrotilapia chrysos "Meponda"
  2. Petrotilapia chrysos — FishBase species summary (SpecCode 54241)
  3. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, CAS) — Petrotilapia chrysos (Stauffer & van Snik 1996; type locality, valid name)
  4. Stauffer, J. R. & E. van Snik, 1996 — Description of a new species of Petrotilapia (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malaŵi, Africa (original description). Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters
  5. Lundeba, M., J. R. Stauffer & A. F. Konings, 2011 — Five new species of Petrotilapia, with the three habitat groups (P. nigra group context). Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters 22(2):149-168 (PDF)
  6. GBIF — Petrotilapia chrysos Stauffer & van Snik, 1996