Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Stigmatochromis pholidophorus

Stigmatochromis pholidophorus "Mvunguti"

Mvunguti — m-voon-GOO-tee (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 Stigmatochromis pholidophorus account →

Specific to Mvunguti

  • 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 Stigmatochromis pholidophorus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7.1 in18 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth16–98 ft5–30 m
DietPiscivore — mid-water drop-strike predator on juvenile cichlids
BreedingMaternal (ovophilous) mouthbrooder; polygynous, no pair bondNot formally documented; habitat-typical for size class ~40–80 eggs [FLAGGED: estimated, not published for this species]
Sexual dimorphismYesMales grow larger (to ~18 cm) and develop blue-grey breeding coloration; females smaller (~14–16 cm) with plainer body and visible spot pattern.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mvunguti population

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

Colour reference: living Mvunguti fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Stigmatochromis pholidophorus is a widespread but seldom-seen haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, found lake-wide across the sandy and transition zones of all three shoreline nations. It earns its specific epithet — literally 'scale-bearer' in Greek — from the row of dark spots along the base of its dorsal fin, and it hunts with an unusual mid-water patience: hovering motionless above a sandy patch, sometimes a metre off the bottom, before dropping in a sudden lunge to seize a juvenile fish. Rarely exported and poorly established in the hobby, it remains one of Malawi's more enigmatic sand predators.

Full Stigmatochromis pholidophorus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Stigmatochromis pholidophorus "Mvunguti"
  2. FishBase — Stigmatochromis pholidophorus (Candle hap)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Stigmatochromis pholidophorus (species record; Trewavas 1935)
  4. Stauffer, J.R. Jr., Cleaver-Yoder, R.M. & Konings, A.F. (2011) — 'Two new species of Stigmatochromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa', Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 124(3): 212–222
  5. Eccles, D.H. & Trewavas, E. (1989) — Malawian Cichlid Fishes: The Classification of Some Haplochromine Genera (Lake Fish Movies, Germany)
  6. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)