Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tropheops sp. "Dark"

Tropheops sp. "Dark" "Likoma Island"

Tropheops sp. "Dark" (Likoma Island, Yofu Bay)

Likoma Island — lee-KOH-mah 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 Tropheops sp. "Dark" account →

Specific to Likoma 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 Tropheops sp. "Dark".

CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesTropheops tropheopsdescribed as Pseudotropheus tropheops Regan 1922
Scientific size4.5 in11 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 446 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth3–49 ft1–15 m
DietAlgae grazer (aufwuchs), rasping the algal mat from rock surfaces at a steep, head-down angle characteristic of the genus
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; genus-typical, on the order of a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesDominant males reported unusually dark, near-black to deep charcoal; females and non-dominant males presumed plainer, following genus pattern.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Likoma Island population

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

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

About the species

Tropheops sp. "Dark" is an undescribed mbuna documented at Likoma Island and nearby Yofu Bay, in the middle-eastern part of Lake Malawi. Its trade name is a colour label — the "Dark" tag used repeatedly across several Malawi mbuna genera for populations noticeably blacker or more heavily melanised than their brighter congeners — rather than a description of body form. It has never been formally described, and no authority, IUCN status, or FishBase entry should be attached to it.

Full Tropheops sp. "Dark" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Dark" "Likoma Island"
  2. Cichlid Room Companion — genus Tropheops
  3. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (Fricke, Eschmeyer & Van der Laan, eds., CAS) — searched: no valid name for the undescribed "Dark" form
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