Tropheops sp. "Chilumba" "Mphanga Rocks"Chilumba tropheops
Tropheops sp. "Chilumba" (Chilumba, Chitande Island, Kaphaso Reef, Katale Island, Luwino Reef, Maison Reef, Mdoka, Mphanga Rocks)
Mphanga Rocks — m-PAHN-gah ROKS (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 Mphanga Rocks
- 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".
The Mphanga Rocks population
Tropheops sp. "Chilumba" "Mphanga Rocks" is the Mphanga Rocks 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 Mphanga Rocks 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 →