Tropheops gracilior "Lupingu"
Lupingu — loo-PEEN-goo (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 Tropheops gracilior account →Specific to Lupingu
- 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 Tropheops gracilior.
The Lupingu population
Tropheops gracilior "Lupingu" is the Lupingu population of Tropheops gracilior, 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 Tropheops gracilior, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Lupingu fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Tropheops gracilior is a slender-bodied mbuna endemic to the rocky shores of Lake Malawi, described by Ethelwynn Trewavas in 1935 from syntypes collected at Vua and Deep Bay in the northern lake. Superficially similar to its sturdier relative Tropheops tropheops, it is distinguished by a more elongate profile and a narrow, downturned mouth suited to grazing the short algal carpet that coats Malawi's sunlit boulders. Males at different localities wear sharply different colours — from purple-rust at Thumbi West to powder-blue at northern Tanzania reefs — making it an instructive example of the geographic colour polymorphism that drives hobbyist interest and taxonomic confusion in the Malawi rock cichlid flock.
Full Tropheops gracilior account →Sources
- malawi.si — Tropheops gracilior "Lupingu"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Tropheops gracilior (species record, updated May 2026)
- FishBase — Tropheops gracilior (Trewavas, 1935) summary
- The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae, p–y): Tropheops gracilior etymology
- Konings, A. 2016 — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 5th edition. Cichlid Press, El Paso (validates T. gracilior as full species; type-locality and colour notes)
- Konings, A. 2004 — 'Exploring Lake Malawi: Thumbi West Island' (Cichlid Room Companion; colour comparison T. gracilior vs T. romandi; purple-rust male coloration)