Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Taeniolethrinops sp. "Furcicauda Liuli"

Taeniolethrinops sp. "Furcicauda Liuli" "Liuli"

Liuli — lee-OO-lee (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 sp. "Furcicauda Liuli" account →

Specific to Liuli

  • 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 sp. "Furcicauda Liuli".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6.5 in17 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth26–115 ft8–35 m
DietSand-sifting invertivore; forages by taking mouthfuls of substrate and sorting out small benthic invertebrates, as in the genus generally
Breedingmaternal mouthbrooder (presumed, genus-typical)not documented for this form; expected several dozen eggs given the genus's moderate-to-large adult size
Sexual dimorphismYesNot documented for this form; genus-typical pattern expected — silvery/sand-coloured outside breeding season, with males acquiring strong nuptial colour that is the primary way Taeniolethrinops species are told apart in the field.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Liuli population

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

Colour reference: living Liuli fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Taeniolethrinops sp. "Furcicauda Liuli" is an undescribed sand-dwelling cichlid recorded off Liuli on the Tanzanian shore of Lake Malawi, named for its resemblance to the described species Taeniolethrinops furcicauda. Like the rest of its genus, it carries a Lethrinops-style protrusible mouth and a diagonal band across the body, features that make Taeniolethrinops species notoriously difficult to tell apart outside of breeding colour — the trait that field workers actually use to separate them. It has no formal description, no describing author, and no Red List status; its relationship to furcicauda, whose deeply forked tail supplies both species' shared informal label, remains to be formally examined.

Full Taeniolethrinops sp. "Furcicauda Liuli" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Taeniolethrinops sp. "Furcicauda Liuli" "Liuli"
  2. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost field authority on Lake Malawi cichlids)
  3. Regan, C.T. 1922 — 'The Cichlid Fishes of Lake Nyassa'. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1921(pt 4):675–727 (foundational description of the lake's haplochromine radiation) [via Cichlid Room Companion reference crc00066]
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (Fricke, Eschmeyer & Van der Laan, eds., CAS) — searched: no valid name for the undescribed "Furcicauda Liuli" form (genus Taeniolethrinops record)