Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Petrotilapia genalutea

Petrotilapia genalutea "Thumbi West Island"

Thumbi West Island — TOOM-bee WEST 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 Petrotilapia genalutea account →

Specific to Thumbi West 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 Petrotilapia genalutea.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.1 in13 cm standard length
Temperature73–82 °F23–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth0–66 ft0–20 m
DietCombs aufwuchs from rock
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~20-40 eggs (genus-typical; not individually documented)
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong: territorial males dull blue-grey with orange flanks and yellow throat/cheeks and black submarginal fin bands; females and juveniles pale with two rows of flank spots and a black dorsal band.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Thumbi West Island population

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

Colour reference: living Thumbi West Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Petrotilapia genalutea is one of the most widely distributed mbuna in Lake Malawi, a large, thick-lipped algae-comber that grazes the loose fuzz of aufwuchs from rocky and sediment-mixed shallows. Described by A. C. Marsh in 1983 from Monkey Bay, it lends its name to one of the three habitat-and-pattern "groups" into which the genus is informally divided. Males wear a dull blue-grey ground with orange flanks and the yellow throat and cheeks that gave the species its name; females and juveniles are pale with a row of blotches and a black band in the dorsal fin.

Full Petrotilapia genalutea account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Petrotilapia genalutea "Thumbi West Island"
  2. Petrotilapia genalutea — FishBase species summary
  3. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Petrotilapia genalutea
  4. Ruffing, Lambert & Stauffer (2006) — Description of a new species of Petrotilapia (P. microgalana), with comparisons to P. genalutea
  5. Lundeba, Stauffer & Konings (2011) — Five new species of Petrotilapia; habitat groups (reported in Practical Fishkeeping)
  6. Konings, A. — Exploring Lake Malawi: Thumbi West Island (Cichlid Press): P. genalutea in intermediate habitats