Petrotilapia mumboensis "Mumbo Island"

Mumbo IslandMOOM-boh 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 mumboensis account →

Specific to Mumbo 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 mumboensis.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5 in12.7 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth0–16 ft0–5 m
DietCombs aufwuchs from rock
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~20-40 eggs (genus-typical; not separately documented)
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males light blue with 8-10 dark bars and pale throat; females gray-brown to light brown.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mumbo Island population

Petrotilapia mumboensis "Mumbo Island" is the Mumbo Island population of Petrotilapia mumboensis, 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 mumboensis, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Mumbo Island fish at malawi.si

About the species

Petrotilapia mumboensis is a rock-grazing mbuna cichlid endemic to a handful of islands in the southern arm of Lake Malawi, where breeding males turn a clean sky-blue crossed by dark bars. Described only in 2011, it is one of the more distinctive members of a genus of thick-lipped algae rakers, and the one species its describers could not slot into any of Petrotilapia's three established ecological groups. It lives in the shallowest, most wave-battered rock of the lake and almost never ventures below about 16 ft (5 m).

Full Petrotilapia mumboensis account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Petrotilapia mumboensis "Mumbo Island"
  2. FishBase: Petrotilapia mumboensis
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (species entry, via FishBase)
  4. Encyclopedia of Life: Petrotilapia mumboensis
  5. GBIF occurrence records: Petrotilapia mumboensis
  6. Lundeba, Stauffer & Konings (2011), Five new species of the genus Petrotilapia, Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters 22(2):149-168 (PDF)