Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tramitichromis sp. "Kande"

Tramitichromis sp. "Kande" "Kande Island"

Kande Island — KAHN-deh 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 Tramitichromis sp. "Kande" account →

Specific to Kande 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 Tramitichromis sp. "Kande".

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, bower-associated breeding males vs. plainer, silvery females.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Kande Island population

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

Colour reference: living Kande Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Tramitichromis sp. "Kande" is an undescribed sand-dwelling cichlid recorded at Kande Island in northern Lake Malawi, an offshore rocky outcrop that also hosts sand habitat in its lee where a Tramitichromis population can forage. Its trade name is purely a locality tag, with no borrowed epithet linking it to a particular described species. Like the rest of its genus it is expected to be a sand-sifting invertivore whose males build and defend excavated sand bowers to attract females. It has no formal description, no describing author, and no Red List status.

Full Tramitichromis sp. "Kande" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tramitichromis sp. "Kande" "Kande Island"
  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 "Kande" form (genus Tramitichromis record)