Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Petrotilapia pyroscelos

Petrotilapia pyroscelos "Chizumulu Island"

Chizumulu Island — chee-zoo-MOO-loo 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 pyroscelos account →

Specific to Chizumulu 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 pyroscelos.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.2 in10.7 cm standard length
Temperature73–82 °F23–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth3–49 ft1–15 m
DietCombs aufwuchs (attached algae, diatoms and associated invertebrates) from rock surfaces; grazing omnivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~20-40 eggs (genus-typical; not individually documented)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales blue-and-bronze with 7-9 gray bars, purple cheek, pale throat and fire-colored pelvic fins; females brown with faint blue/yellow highlights. Both sexes show a dark submarginal band in the dorsal fin.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chizumulu Island population

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

Colour reference: living Chizumulu Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Petrotilapia pyroscelos is a rock-dwelling mbuna endemic to Lake Malawi, described in 2011 from the waters around Chizumulu Island. Like all Petrotilapia it is a thick-lipped, tricuspid-toothed aufwuchs grazer that combs the algal felt from sunlit rock, but it carries a vivid signature: breeding males have pelvic fins the color of fire, the trait that gave the species its name (Greek for 'fire leg'). A dark submarginal band running through the dorsal fin of both sexes — absent in several of its closest relatives — is the other reliable key to telling it apart in a genus where look-alike species are separated chiefly by the live coloration of their males.

Full Petrotilapia pyroscelos account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Petrotilapia pyroscelos "Chizumulu Island"
  2. Petrotilapia pyroscelos — FishBase species summary (SpecCode 66139)
  3. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, CAS) — Petrotilapia pyroscelos (Lundeba, Stauffer & Konings 2011; type locality, valid name)
  4. Lundeba, M., J. R. Stauffer & A. F. Konings, 2011 — Five new species of the genus Petrotilapia (Teleostei: Cichlidae), from Lake Malawi, Africa (original description). Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters 22(2):149–168 (PDF)
  5. Konings, A., 2016 — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (5th ed.), Petrotilapia account (validity reference cited by Catalog of Fishes)
  6. Ruffing, R., A. Lambert & J. R. Stauffer, 2006 — Description of Petrotilapia microgalana, with morphometric comparisons across the genus (PDF)