Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos

Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos "Maingano Island"

Maingano Island — mah-een-GAH-noh 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 Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos account →

Specific to Maingano 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 Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos.

IUCNCRITICALLY ENDANGERED · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.1 in8 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth10–59 ft3–18 m
DietGrazes aufwuchs from rock
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~10–30 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesWeak — both sexes are dark blue with electric-blue stripes; males show more anal-fin egg-spots (1–5) than females (0–1).
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Maingano Island population

Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos "Maingano Island" is the Maingano Island population of Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Maingano Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos is a small, jet-blue rock cichlid (an mbuna) found at a single rocky corner of Likoma Island in Lake Malawi, where aquarists know it as the "Maingano." Its electric-blue-on-black striping makes it one of the most popular mbuna in the trade — and that popularity is also its problem: the IUCN lists it as Critically Endangered, driven almost entirely by collection for the aquarium hobby. It is a textbook case of a fish that is common in tanks worldwide yet barely hanging on in the wild.

Full Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos "Maingano Island"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos
  3. FishBase — Pseudotropheus cyaneorhabdos (Bowers & Stauffer, 1997)
  4. Bowers & Stauffer (1997), Eight new rock-dwelling Melanochromis from Lake Malawi, Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwat. 8(1):49–70 (via Cichlid Room Companion)
  5. Chavula et al. (2023), Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa basin: Status, challenges, and research needs, J. Great Lakes Res. 49(6):102241
  6. Malawi Cichlids — Bibliography of Lake Malawi biology (Bowers & Stauffer 1997 entry)