Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Petrotilapia sp. "Yellow Chin"

Petrotilapia sp. "Yellow Chin" "Maleri Island"

Maleri Island — mah-LEH-ree 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. "Yellow Chin" account →

Specific to Maleri 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. "Yellow Chin".

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
DietSpecialised algae grazer, dense rows of multi-cusped teeth scrape aufwuchs from wave-washed rock
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; expected modest, a few dozen eggs, by analogy with similarly sized Petrotilapia
Sexual dimorphismYesTrade name indicates a yellow chin/lower-jaw marking; Petrotilapia populations often contain several coexisting male colour morphs, so a single simple description likely understates real variation.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Maleri Island population

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

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

About the species

Petrotilapia sp. "Yellow Chin" is an undescribed mbuna from the south-central part of Lake Malawi, belonging to a genus of large, heavily built algae grazers known in the hobby simply as "petros." Petrotilapia is notorious among Lake Malawi taxonomists for a level of within-population male colour variation unusual even by mbuna standards, which is a large part of why so many of its populations remain informal trade forms rather than described species; this "Yellow Chin" form is one of them, named for a yellow marking reported on the lower jaw. It carries no authority, no publication year, no FishBase number, and no IUCN assessment.

Full Petrotilapia sp. "Yellow Chin" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Petrotilapia sp. "Yellow Chin" "Maleri Island"
  2. malawi.si — Konings-based Lake Malawi cichlid species and locality database
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Malawi cichlid genus and undescribed-form references (Ad Konings, curator)
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)