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

Tropheops sp. "Higga" "Mbamba Bay"

Tropheops sp. "Higga" (Higga Reef, Mbamba Bay, Ngkuyo Island)

Mbamba Bay — m-BAHM-bah BAY (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. "Higga" account →

Specific to Mbamba Bay

  • 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. "Higga".

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
Depth3–39 ft1–12 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 dimorphismYesSexual dichromatism presumed typical for the genus; no specific colour account documented for this population.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mbamba Bay population

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

Colour reference: living Mbamba Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Tropheops sp. "Higga" is an undescribed mbuna cichlid documented along the Tanzanian shore of Lake Malawi, at Higga Reef and Mbamba Bay, with a further record at Ngkuyo Island. Its trade name is a straightforward locality tag — Higga Reef, its type collection point — rather than a description of colour or pattern. It has never been given a formal scientific description, and no authority, IUCN status, or FishBase entry should be attached to it.

Full Tropheops sp. "Higga" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Higga" "Mbamba Bay"
  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 "Higga" form
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