Protomelas taeniolatus "Gome"
Gome — GOH-meh (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 taeniolatus account →Specific to Gome
- 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 taeniolatus.
The Gome population
Protomelas taeniolatus "Gome" is the Gome population of Protomelas taeniolatus, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Protomelas taeniolatus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Gome fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Protomelas taeniolatus is a haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, best known to aquarists by its trade name, the "Red Empress." In the wild it is an unassuming algae-grazer of the shallow rocky shoreline, but in courting dress a dominant male turns the head an electric emerald-blue and the flanks a furnace red — a combination so striking that the fish has been a hobby staple for decades. It is one of several geographically variable forms in a genus where the line between "colour morph" and "species" is still being argued.
Full Protomelas taeniolatus account →Sources
- malawi.si — Protomelas taeniolatus "Gome"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Protomelas taeniolatus (species entry)
- FishBase — Protomelas taeniolatus (Spindle hap) summary
- GBIF — Protomelas taeniolatus occurrence and taxonomy
- Konings, A. — Exploring Lake Malawi: Taiwan Reef (Cichlid Press) — Protomelas taeniolatus-complex & 'Steveni Taiwan'
- Konings, A. — Cichlids Yearbook vol. 2 (Cichlid Press) — Protomelas taeniolatus-complex & colour forms