Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Reef East"

Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Reef East" "Ntekete"

Ntekete — n-teh-KEH-teh (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 Reef East" account →

Specific to Ntekete

  • 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 Reef East".

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 Ntekete population

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

Colour reference: living Ntekete fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Reef East" is an undescribed mbuna recorded from Ntekete on the Malawian shore 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. Its trade name places it at an eastern reef site, distinguishing it from the other, separately named elongatus populations recognised elsewhere around the lake. 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 Reef East" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Reef East" "Ntekete"
  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)