Protomelas virgatus "Nkhata Bay"
Nkhata Bay — n-KAH-tah BAY (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 virgatus account →Specific to Nkhata Bay
- 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 virgatus.
The Nkhata Bay population
Protomelas virgatus "Nkhata Bay" is the Nkhata Bay population of Protomelas virgatus, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Protomelas virgatus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Nkhata Bay fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Protomelas virgatus is a modestly sized haplochromine cichlid found only along the southwestern shore of Lake Malawi, where territorial males graze the thin algal film on shallow, sediment-dusted rocks and gather into small breeding leks. Described by Ethelwynn Trewavas in 1935 and long known to aquarists under the trade name "Haplochromis Green Steveni," it is one of the lake's many close-knit, look-alike "haps" — distinguished less by flashy color than by a peculiar jaw and a tidy pattern of dark spots running the length of its flank.
Full Protomelas virgatus account →Sources
- malawi.si — Protomelas virgatus "Nkhata Bay"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Haplochromis virgatus / Protomelas virgatus (Trewavas 1935)
- FishBase — Protomelas virgatus (Trewavas, 1935)
- GBIF — Protomelas virgatus (accepted taxon)
- Chavula et al. 2023 — Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa basin: Status, challenges, and research needs (J. Great Lakes Res. 49(6):102241)
- Chavula et al. 2023 — record and reference list (DOI 10.1016/j.jglr.2023.102241)