Protomelas insignis "Mdoka"
Mdoka — m-DOH-kah (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 Protomelas insignis account →Specific to Mdoka
- 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 Protomelas insignis.
The Mdoka population
Protomelas insignis "Mdoka" is the Mdoka population of Protomelas insignis, 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 Protomelas insignis, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mdoka fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Protomelas insignis is a mid-sized haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi with a behavioral habit that sets it apart from nearly every other hap in the lake: it makes its living stealing eggs. Rather than grazing algae or sifting sand, it cruises above rocky breeding arenas, watching the spawning activity of other cichlids, and darts in at precisely the right moment to snatch freshly laid eggs before the mouthbrooding female can collect them. This specialization has shaped everything about the fish — its body plan, its hunting patience, and its comparative rarity across a lake that holds hundreds of other cichlid species.
Full Protomelas insignis account →Sources
- malawi.si — Protomelas insignis "Mdoka"
- FishBase — Protomelas insignis (One-and-a-half-stripe hap)
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Protomelas insignis (species record; lectotype BMNH 1935.6.14.839)
- The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae, p–y): Protomelas and P. insignis etymology
- malawi.si — Protomelas insignis 'Gome' (M.K. Oliver / Konings species and locality database)
- Trewavas, E. — 'A synopsis of the cichlid fishes of Lake Nyasa', Annals and Magazine of Natural History (10)16: 65–118 (1935) [original description]