Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Protomelas marginatus

Protomelas marginatus "Sambia Reef"

Sambia Reef — sahm-BEE-ah 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 Protomelas marginatus account →

Specific to Sambia 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 Protomelas marginatus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6.5 in16.6 cm total length
Temperature73–82 °F23–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth—not recorded
DietHerbivore/detritivore — algae and the debris of vascular plants in shallow weed beds; small invertebrates taken only incidentally (trophic level ~2.0)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (genus/flock-typical)Not specifically recorded
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males more brightly coloured than females; detailed nuptial colour poorly documented.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Sambia Reef population

Protomelas marginatus "Sambia Reef" is the Sambia Reef population of Protomelas marginatus, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Malawi in the northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Protomelas marginatus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Sambia Reef fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Protomelas marginatus is a plant-eating cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, originally described in 1935 by Ethelwynn Trewavas and later folded into the genus Protomelas. Unlike several of its carnivorous relatives, it is a herbivore of the shallow weed beds, grazing on algae and the debris of vascular plants. Once split into a southern and a northern subspecies, it is today treated as a single, widespread species and is listed by the IUCN as Least Concern.

Full Protomelas marginatus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Protomelas marginatus "Sambia Reef"
  2. Trewavas, E. 1935 — A synopsis of the cichlid fishes of Lake Nyasa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (Series 10) 16:65–118 (original description of Haplochromis marginatus)
  3. FishBase — Protomelas marginatus (Trewavas, 1935) (size, counts, diet, subspecies note)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Protomelas marginatus (valid name, type data, lectotype)
  5. Eccles, D.H. & Trewavas, E. 1989 — Malawian Cichlid Fishes: the Classification of some Haplochromine Genera (transfer to Protomelas; lectotype)
  6. Maréchal, C. 1991 — Protomelas, in Check-list of the Freshwater Fishes of Africa (CLOFFA) vol. 4: 387–393