Petrotilapia xanthos "Gallireya Reef"
Gallireya Reef — gah-lee-REH-yah REEF (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 xanthos account →Specific to Gallireya Reef
- 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 xanthos.
The Gallireya Reef population
Petrotilapia xanthos "Gallireya Reef" is the Gallireya Reef population of Petrotilapia xanthos, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Petrotilapia xanthos, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Gallireya Reef fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Petrotilapia xanthos is a rock-dwelling mbuna documented from Gallireya Reef in the northern part of Lake Malawi. Like every member of its genus it is a thick-lipped, tricuspid-toothed aufwuchs grazer that combs the algal felt from sunlit rock, and its name — Greek xanthos, 'yellow' — places it among a run of Petrotilapia species named for the breeding colour of their males, alongside relatives such as Petrotilapia chrysos ('gold') and Petrotilapia flaviventris ('yellow-belly'). The precise original description behind the name has not been verified against a primary source for this entry, and the account below leans on secure genus-level biology rather than species-specific measurement.
Full Petrotilapia xanthos account →