Placidochromis vulgaris "Nkhata Bay"
Nkhata Bay — n-KAH-tah 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 Placidochromis vulgaris account →Specific to Nkhata 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 Placidochromis vulgaris.
The Nkhata Bay population
Placidochromis vulgaris "Nkhata Bay" is the Nkhata Bay population of Placidochromis vulgaris, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Placidochromis vulgaris, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Nkhata Bay fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Placidochromis vulgaris is a haplochromine cichlid documented from the Nkhata Bay area of Lake Malawi's western shore. Its Latin epithet, "common" or "ordinary," was likely chosen to describe an unremarkable, plainly marked fish among a genus otherwise defined by subtle head-shape and lip differences — a modest name for a modestly patterned species. It belongs to the lake's non-mbuna haplochromine radiation, the sand- and transition-zone cichlids that forage away from the dense rocky mbuna communities.
Full Placidochromis vulgaris account →