Pseudotropheus lucerna "Londo Bay"

Londo BayLOHN-doh 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 Pseudotropheus lucerna account →

Specific to Londo 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 Pseudotropheus lucerna.

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.8–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)slightly hardup to 214 ppm
Depth3–66 ft1–20 m
DietAufwuchs grazer — algae, diatoms and associated micro-invertebrates rasped from rock
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (territorial)Not documented for this species; robust-bodied mbuna generally carry a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesNot well documented for this species; breeding males are expected to show more saturated colour than females, as in most mbuna.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Londo Bay population

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

Colour reference: living Londo Bay fish at malawi.si

About the species

Pseudotropheus lucerna is a rock-dwelling mbuna from Lake Malawi, a member of the genus that gave the mbuna group its scientific identity and, even after decades of taxonomic splitting into Maylandia, Tropheops and other segregate genera, still anchors the classic robust-bodied, algae-grazing rock cichlid archetype. Its epithet, Latin for lamp or lantern, hints at a bright marking or patch on the body — a naming style common among mbuna described from a single striking field character. Documented from the northern lake, it remains a fish known mainly through field and collection-locality records rather than the general aquarium trade.

Full Pseudotropheus lucerna account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Pseudotropheus lucerna "Londo Bay"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — search interface (authority for the valid name)
  3. FishBase — Pseudotropheus lucerna species summary
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)