Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Namalenje"

Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Namalenje" "Namalenje Island"

Namalenje Island — nah-mah-LEHN-jeh 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. "Elongatus Namalenje" account →

Specific to Namalenje 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. "Elongatus Namalenje".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in12 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 dimorphismYesBody shape is diagnostically more elongate than typical Tropheops; colour pattern for this specific population not separately documented.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Namalenje Island population

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

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

About the species

Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Namalenje" is an undescribed mbuna from Namalenje Island in the southern part of Lake Malawi, belonging to the "elongatus" group within Tropheops — a set of populations distinguished from the more typical, deep-bodied Tropheops by a noticeably more elongate body shape. Several geographically separate elongatus populations are recognised across the lake, each carrying its own locality tag; this is the form recorded at Namalenje. Like all Tropheops it grazes aufwuchs from rock using specialised comb-like teeth. It has never been formally described, so it carries no authority, no publication year, no FishBase entry, and no IUCN assessment.

Full Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Namalenje" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Namalenje" "Namalenje Island"
  2. malawi.si — Konings-based Lake Malawi cichlid species and locality database (Tropheops)
  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)