Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Placidochromis mbunoides

Placidochromis mbunoides "Domwe Island"

Domwe Island — DOHM-weh 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 Placidochromis mbunoides account →

Specific to Domwe 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 Placidochromis mbunoides.

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.5 in9 cm standard length
Temperature73–81 °F23–27 °C
pH7.8–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 357 ppm
Depth66–262 ft20–80 m
DietPresumed benthic invertivore working deep sediment (no direct study; inferred from genus and habitat)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderUnrecorded for this species; comparable deep-water Placidochromis run from a few dozen to about a hundred eggs
Sexual dimorphismNot documentedNot documented; known mainly from preserved, trawled specimens, so breeding coloration and dimorphism are unrecorded.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Domwe Island population

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

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

About the species

Placidochromis mbunoides is a small, little-known haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, one of the many deep-water Placidochromis named in a single stroke by the Belgian ichthyologist Mark Hanssens in his 2004 monographic revision of the genus. The epithet mbunoides combines the Chichewa word mbuna — the collective name for the lake's flamboyant rock-dwelling cichlids — with the Greek suffix -oides ('resembling'), marking a deep-water Placidochromis whose body form or pattern superficially recalls the rock-dwelling mbuna despite its very different, soft-bottomed lifestyle. It is documented from the waters off Domwe Island, one of the rocky islets of the Nankumba Peninsula archipelago (with Mumbo and Thumbi Islands) inside Lake Malawi National Park, and like its many relatives in the same revision it is known chiefly from preserved, trawled specimens rather than from living, brightly coloured fish.

Full Placidochromis mbunoides account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Placidochromis mbunoides "Domwe Island"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Placidochromis mbunoides (valid name, authorship, type data)
  3. Hanssens, M., 2004 — The deep-water Placidochromis species. In: J. Snoeks (ed.), The Cichlid Diversity of Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa: Identification, Distribution and Taxonomy, pp. 104-197. Cichlid Press (original description of the deep-water Placidochromis cohort)
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi authority)