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

Tramitichromis sp. "Mvunguti" "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 Tramitichromis sp. "Mvunguti" 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 Tramitichromis sp. "Mvunguti".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6.5 in16 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth7–49 ft2–15 m
DietSand-sifting invertivore, filtering insect larvae and soft invertebrates from sediment through the gill rakers
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; expected modest, a few dozen eggs, by analogy with similarly sized Tramitichromis
Sexual dimorphismYesNot documented for this specific form; genus pattern is duller, cryptic females and more strongly coloured territorial males.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mvunguti population

Tramitichromis sp. "Mvunguti" "Mvunguti" is the Mvunguti population of Tramitichromis sp. "Mvunguti", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Tramitichromis sp. "Mvunguti", 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

Tramitichromis sp. "Mvunguti" is an undescribed sand-dwelling haplochromine known from a single documented site on the southern shore of Lake Malawi, near the mouth of the South West Arm. Like the rest of its genus it is a sand-sifter, taking mouthfuls of sediment and filtering out buried invertebrates through comb-like gill rakers, and it shares the distinctively angled lower pharyngeal jaw that unites all Tramitichromis. It has never been formally described, so it carries no authority, no publication year, no FishBase entry, and no IUCN assessment — its status rests entirely on field and hobby records built around the Mvunguti locality name.

Full Tramitichromis sp. "Mvunguti" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tramitichromis sp. "Mvunguti" "Mvunguti"
  2. malawi.si — Konings-based Lake Malawi cichlid species and locality database (Tramitichromis)
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Malawi cichlid genus and undescribed-form references (Ad Konings, curator)
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority)