Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Protomelas triaenodon

Protomelas triaenodon "Mdowa"

Protomelas triaenodon (Liuli, Mdowa, Senga Bay)

Mdowa — m-DOH-wah (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 triaenodon account →

Specific to Mdowa

  • 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 triaenodon.

CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesProtomelas kirkiidescribed as Chromis kirkii Günther 1894
Scientific size6 in15 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 214 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth10–115 ft3–35 m
DietSand- and open-water invertivore; tricuspid teeth suited to picking small prey
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (lek-spawning on open sand)Not documented; estimated several dozen eggs by analogy with similarly sized congeners
Sexual dimorphismYesNot well documented for this species; breeding males are expected to intensify in colour as in most Lake Malawi haplochromines.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mdowa population

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

Colour reference: living Mdowa fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Protomelas triaenodon is a sand- and open-water haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, part of the genus Protomelas that includes some of the hobby's most colourful sand-dwelling species alongside plainer, more workmanlike fish like this one. Its epithet, Greek for trident-tooth, refers to the three-cusped outer teeth typical of many haplochromines in this group — a dental detail taxonomists use to help separate closely related species. Documented across a wide north-to-central stretch of the lake, it is a genuinely widespread fish, though one known mainly through field and collection-locality records rather than the aquarium trade.

Full Protomelas triaenodon account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Protomelas triaenodon "Mdowa"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — search interface (authority for the valid name)
  3. FishBase — Protomelas triaenodon species summary
  4. Eccles, D. H. & Trewavas, E. 1989 — Malawian Cichlid Fishes: The Classification of Some Haplochromine Genera
  5. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)
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