Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Petrotilapia nigra

Petrotilapia nigra "Zimbawe Rock"

Petrotilapia nigra (Thumbi West Island, Zimbawe Rock)

Zimbawe Rock — zim-BAH-way ROK (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 nigra account →

Specific to Zimbawe Rock

  • 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 nigra.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesPetrotilapia tridentigerTrewavas 1935
Scientific size5 in12.2 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 179 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth0–115 ft0–35 m
DietCombs aufwuchs from rock
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderGenus-typical small clutch of a few dozen eggs (not documented for this species)
Sexual dimorphismYesDominant males are blue-black with gray-brown bars, a dark blue cheek and black throat; females and non-territorial males are a plain beige to yellowish.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Zimbawe Rock population

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

Colour reference: living Zimbawe Rock fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Petrotilapia nigra is a rock-dwelling cichlid (an mbuna) found only along a stretch of the rocky southwestern shore of Lake Malawi, where dark, blue-black breeding males hold territory among the boulders. Like all members of its genus, it carries broad, fleshy lips packed with rows of long, flexible, mostly tricuspid teeth that it uses like a comb to graze the algal turf coating submerged rock. It is one of the lake's many narrow-range endemics: very common where it lives, but living nowhere else.

Full Petrotilapia nigra account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Petrotilapia nigra "Zimbawe Rock"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Petrotilapia nigra (species record)
  3. FishBase — Petrotilapia nigra summary
  4. FishBase — Petrotilapia pyroscelos (genus diagnostic comparisons incl. P. nigra)
  5. Marsh, A.C. 1983 — A taxonomic study of the fish genus Petrotilapia (Ichthyological Bulletin 48)
  6. Sabo, Konings & Stauffer 2026 — Petrotilapia kitrinos, a previously undescribed cichlid from Lake Malawi (European Journal of Zoology)
  7. IUCN Red List — Petrotilapia nigra "Zimbawe Rock"
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