Petrotilapia flaviventris "Cobwe"

CobweKOH-bweh (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 flaviventris account →

Specific to Cobwe

  • 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 flaviventris.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.4 in11.1 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth16–66 ft5–20 m
DietCombs aufwuchs (algae & micro-invertebrates) from rock
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~20–40 eggs (genus-typical)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales blue-bodied with yellow belly, throat and lower flanks (some populations near-entirely yellow); females and non-dominant fish yellow-brown with dark interrupted stripes.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Cobwe population

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

Colour reference: living Cobwe fish at malawi.si

About the species

Petrotilapia flaviventris is a rock-grazing mbuna cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, described only in 2011 from Chizumulu Island. Like all members of its genus, it wears a set of broad, fleshy, tooth-studded lips that it presses against algae-covered rock to comb out diatoms and loose filaments. The species takes its name from the egg-yolk yellow that floods the belly, throat, and lower flanks of breeding males, a feature that earned it the informal hobby tag "yellow ventral" before it had a formal name.

Full Petrotilapia flaviventris account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Petrotilapia flaviventris "Cobwe"
  2. Petrotilapia flaviventris — FishBase summary
  3. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer/CAS) — Petrotilapia flaviventris
  4. EOL — Petrotilapia flaviventris Lundeba, Stauffer & Konings 2011
  5. Lundeba, Stauffer & Konings (2011), Five new species of the genus Petrotilapia, Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwat. 22(2):149–168
  6. Ribbink et al. (1983), A preliminary survey of the cichlid fishes of rocky habitats in Lake Malawi, S. Afr. J. Zool. 18:149–310 (genus ecology, cited in IUCN)