Taeniolethrinops furcicauda "Lumessi"
Taeniolethrinops furcicauda (Border, Chiofu, Chizumulu Island, Lumessi, Malopa, Masinje, Ntekete, Senga Bay)
Lumessi — loo-MEH-see (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 Taeniolethrinops furcicauda account →Specific to Lumessi
- 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 Taeniolethrinops furcicauda.
The Lumessi population
Taeniolethrinops furcicauda "Lumessi" is the Lumessi population of Taeniolethrinops furcicauda, a geographic colour form from the Mozambique coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Taeniolethrinops furcicauda, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Lumessi fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Taeniolethrinops furcicauda is a sand-dwelling Lake Malawi cichlid documented from a spread of localities along the lake's central-western shore, from Chizumulu Island in the north to Senga Bay in the south. Its name announces its most distinctive feature outright: furcicauda is Latin for 'forked tail,' marking a deeply forked caudal fin that sets it apart from the more rounded tails of many related sand-dwelling haplochromines. It belongs to Taeniolethrinops, a genus of elongated, striped haps closely related to Lethrinops, sharing that genus's habit of sifting open sand for buried invertebrates.
Full Taeniolethrinops furcicauda account →