Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Protomelas pleurotaenia

Protomelas pleurotaenia "Liuli"

Liuli — lee-OO-lee (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 pleurotaenia account →

Specific to Liuli

  • 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 pleurotaenia.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.6 in14.1 cm total length
Temperature73–82 °F23–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth0–33 ft0–10 m
DietSand-sifting invertivore — blows into the upper sand layer to expose small invertebrates; some enlarged pharyngeal teeth for harder prey (trophic level ~3.5)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (genus/flock-typical)Not specifically recorded
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males more brightly coloured than females, per the typical Malawi-hap pattern; detailed nuptial colour poorly documented.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Liuli population

Protomelas pleurotaenia "Liuli" is the Liuli population of Protomelas pleurotaenia, 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 pleurotaenia, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Liuli fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Protomelas pleurotaenia is a small, sand-dwelling cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, described by George Albert Boulenger in 1901 and later placed in the genus Protomelas. It earns its living by 'blowing' into the upper layer of sand to expose and pick out the small invertebrates living there, a sand-sifting strategy combined with a battery of enlarged pharyngeal teeth for processing harder prey. Recorded from the Monkey Bay and Nkhata Bay areas, it is a comparatively small Protomelas, reaching about 11–14 cm, and is listed by the IUCN as Least Concern.

Full Protomelas pleurotaenia account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Protomelas pleurotaenia "Liuli"
  2. Boulenger, G.A. 1901 — original description of Tilapia pleurotaenia (Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series 7, vol. 7)
  3. FishBase — Protomelas pleurotaenia (Boulenger, 1901) (size, counts, sand-blowing feeding, depth, distribution)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Protomelas pleurotaenia (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