Tropheops sp. "Chilumba" "Mdoka"

Mdokam-DOH-kah (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 sp. "Chilumba" account →

Specific to Mdoka

  • 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 sp. "Chilumba".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4 in10 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth10–66 ft3–20 m
DietAlgae grazer, scraping aufwuchs from rock surfaces using specialised comb-like teeth
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; expected modest, a few dozen eggs, by analogy with similarly sized Tropheops
Sexual dimorphismYesDistinguished from the closely related Red Fin population primarily by locality and the judgement that its population differs enough to warrant a separate trade name; a detailed independent colour description is not published.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mdoka population

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

Colour reference: living Mdoka fish at malawi.si

About the species

Tropheops sp. "Chilumba" is an undescribed mbuna from the far northern shore of Lake Malawi, split off by Ad Konings from the closely related and better-known Tropheops sp. "Red Fin" once he judged the northernmost populations, from Chitande Island to Mphanga Rocks, distinct enough to warrant a separate trade name. It is documented in the literature as one of several Malawi cichlids in which at least partial external fertilisation of the eggs has been recorded, an unusual variant on the typical Lake Malawi mouthbrooding spawning sequence. It carries no authority, no publication year, no FishBase number, and no IUCN assessment.

Full Tropheops sp. "Chilumba" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Chilumba" "Mdoka"
  2. malawi.si — Konings-based Lake Malawi cichlid species and locality database
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Malawi cichlid genus and undescribed-form references (Ad Konings, curator)
  4. Konings, A. (ed.) — Cichlids Yearbook, Volume 2 (Cichlid Press)