Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tramitichromis sp. "Brevis Magunga"

Tramitichromis sp. "Brevis Magunga" "Magunga"

Magunga — mah-GOON-gah (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 Tramitichromis sp. "Brevis Magunga" account →

Specific to Magunga

  • 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 Tramitichromis sp. "Brevis Magunga".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth10–66 ft3–20 m
DietSand-sifting invertivore; genus-typical short, robust lower gill rakers sieve heavier sand from lighter invertebrate/algal food
Breedingmaternal mouthbrooder (presumed, genus-typical); males build sand bowers as courtship/spawning sitesnot documented for this form
Sexual dimorphismYesNot documented for this form; genus-typical expectation of more strongly coloured breeding males vs. plainer, silvery females.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Magunga population

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

Colour reference: living Magunga fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Tramitichromis sp. "Brevis Magunga" is an undescribed sand-dwelling cichlid recorded at Magunga, a well-known collecting locality on the Malawian shore, named for its resemblance to the described species Tramitichromis brevis. Like the rest of its genus, it belongs to the small group of sand-dwelling haplochromines whose males build and defend conical or crater-shaped sand bowers to attract females — one of the more visually distinctive breeding displays anywhere in Lake Malawi's cichlid radiation. It has no formal description, no describing author, and no Red List status.

Full Tramitichromis sp. "Brevis Magunga" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tramitichromis sp. "Brevis Magunga" "Magunga"
  2. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost field authority on Lake Malawi cichlids)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (Fricke, Eschmeyer & Van der Laan, eds., CAS) — searched: no valid name for the undescribed "Brevis Magunga" form (genus Tramitichromis record)