Pseudotropheus williamsi "Chizumulu Island"
Chizumulu Island — chee-zoo-MOO-loo 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 williamsi account →Specific to Chizumulu 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 williamsi.
The Chizumulu Island population
Pseudotropheus williamsi "Chizumulu Island" is the Chizumulu Island population of Pseudotropheus williamsi, 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 williamsi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Chizumulu Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Pseudotropheus williamsi is an mbuna cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, described in 1894 from specimens collected by an Anglican missionary and named in his memory. It lives in the shallowest sliver of the lake's rocky shores — typically the top two metres — where wave action and turbulence define the habitat as much as the rock itself. A wide-ranging species that spans the length of the lake in a mosaic of location-specific colour forms, it represents the oldest formal name in what hobbyists and researchers alike call the 'williamsi complex': a cluster of closely related lineages whose boundaries are still actively debated.
Full Pseudotropheus williamsi account →Sources
- malawi.si — Pseudotropheus williamsi "Chizumulu Island"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Pseudotropheus williamsi (Günther 1894) — species record spid=21857, updated 19 May 2026
- FishBase: Pseudotropheus williamsi summary page
- FishBase: Synonyms of Pseudotropheus williamsi
- ETYFish Project: Pseudotropheus williamsi etymology (Günther 1894 — eponym for Anglican missionary Joseph A. Williams)
- Stauffer, J.R. Jr. & K.A. Kellogg (2002). Description of a new species in the Pseudotropheus williamsi complex (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa. Copeia 2002(1):146–151.