Pseudotropheus sp. "Tiny" "Thumbi West Island"

Thumbi West IslandTOOM-bee WEST 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 sp. "Tiny" account →

Specific to Thumbi West 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 sp. "Tiny".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3 in7 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth7–49 ft2–15 m
DietAlgae grazer — aufwuchs and associated diatoms/micro-invertebrates rasped from rock
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; plausibly smaller than genus-typical given its implied small adult size
Sexual dimorphismYesPresumed present, following the near-universal mbuna pattern of brighter dominant males; the specific colour pattern of this population is not documented.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Thumbi West Island population

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

Colour reference: living Thumbi West Island fish at malawi.si

About the species

Pseudotropheus sp. "Tiny" is an undescribed mbuna recorded from Thumbi West Island, a rocky island within Lake Malawi National Park in the Cape Maclear area of the southern lake — one of the most intensively studied and cichlid-dense stretches of shoreline on Lake Malawi. Its trade name flags a notably small adult size relative to its congeners. It has no describing author, no FishBase page and no IUCN assessment.

Full Pseudotropheus sp. "Tiny" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Pseudotropheus sp. "Tiny" "Thumbi West Island"
  2. Cichlid Room Companion — genus Pseudotropheus
  3. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)