Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Petrotilapia sp. "Chitimba"

Petrotilapia sp. "Chitimba" "Chitimba Bay"

Petrotilapia sp. "Chitimba" (Chitimba Bay)

Chitimba Bay — chee-TEEM-bah BAY (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 sp. "Chitimba" account →

Specific to Chitimba Bay

  • 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 sp. "Chitimba".

CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesPetrotilapia tridentigerTrewavas 1935
Scientific size5 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 446 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth7–49 ft2–15 m
DietAlgae specialist; scrapes tough, wave-hardened algal turf from exposed rock using broad, closely packed teeth.
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; larger than typical small mbuna given larger adult size
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males expected to show a darker, more contrasting colour than females; as across the genus, females of different Petrotilapia populations tend to resemble one another closely. Specific pattern for this form not documented.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chitimba Bay population

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

Colour reference: living Chitimba Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Petrotilapia sp. "Chitimba" is an undescribed rock-scraping mbuna recorded in Chitimba Bay, on the northern Malawian shore of Lake Malawi. Its trade name is a straightforward locality tag, and the form is well enough known in the hobby to have been photographed for Ad Konings' book Enjoying Cichlids, alongside other northern Malawi mbuna and Aulonocara from the same stretch of coast.

Full Petrotilapia sp. "Chitimba" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Petrotilapia sp. "Chitimba" "Chitimba Bay"
  2. malawi.si — Petrotilapia sp. "chitimba" (Konings-based species database; Chitimba Bay record)
  3. Konings, A. — Enjoying Cichlids (Cichlid Press) — features a photograph of Petrotilapia sp. "chitimba" from Chitimba Bay, Malawi
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority; Petrotilapia polymorphism)
  5. Cichlid Room Companion — Petrotilapia (genus profile)
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