Protomelas sp. "Hertae" "Nakantenga Island"
Nakantenga Island — nah-kahn-TEHN-gah 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 Protomelas sp. "Hertae" account →Specific to Nakantenga 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 Protomelas sp. "Hertae".
The Nakantenga Island population
Protomelas sp. "Hertae" "Nakantenga Island" is the Nakantenga Island population of Protomelas sp. "Hertae", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Protomelas sp. "Hertae", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Nakantenga Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Protomelas sp. "Hertae" is an undescribed haplochromine cichlid recorded from a scattered set of localities spanning much of the Malawian shoreline, from Linganjala Reef in the north to Thumbi West Island in the south. Protomelas is one of the lake’s larger and more diverse genera of sand-and-intermediate-habitat haps, known for producing some of Lake Malawi’s most colourful males — brilliant blues, reds and oranges — many of which build sizeable sand bowers to display from and attract females. This form is known only by its trade name; it has no describing author, no FishBase record, and no Red List status.
Full Protomelas sp. "Hertae" account →