Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Petrotilapia sp. "Likoma Variable"

Petrotilapia sp. "Likoma Variable" "Masimbwe Island"

Masimbwe Island — mah-SEEM-bweh 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 sp. "Likoma Variable" account →

Specific to Masimbwe 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 sp. "Likoma Variable".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
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 dimorphismYesTrade name implies notably variable individual male colouration within this population; females plainer and, as across the genus, more similar to females of other Petrotilapia populations than the males are to one another.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Masimbwe Island population

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

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

About the species

Petrotilapia sp. "Likoma Variable" is an undescribed rock-scraping mbuna recorded at Masimbwe Island, near Likoma Island in Lake Malawi. Its trade name flags a genuinely well-documented genus trait: Petrotilapia populations, and their males in particular, are notorious among Malawi cichlid taxonomists for wide individual colour variation within a single locality, a pattern that has repeatedly complicated efforts to draw clean species boundaries in the genus.

Full Petrotilapia sp. "Likoma Variable" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Petrotilapia sp. "Likoma Variable" "Masimbwe Island"
  2. malawi.si — Petrotilapia sp. "likoma variable" (Konings-based species database; Masimbwe Island record)
  3. Marsh, A.C., 1983 — Taxonomic revision of Petrotilapia (Ichthyological Bulletin, J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology); splits the polymorphic P. tridentiger complex
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority; Petrotilapia polymorphism)
  5. Cichlid Room Companion — Petrotilapia (genus profile)