Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tropheops sp. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya"

Tropheops sp. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya" "Gallireya Reef"

Gallireya Reef — gah-lee-REH-yah REEF (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. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya" account →

Specific to Gallireya Reef

  • 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. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in11 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth16–66 ft5–20 m
DietAlgae grazer, scraping aufwuchs from rock surfaces; likely takes some drifting plankton where algal growth thins at depth
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; expected modest, a few dozen eggs, by analogy with similarly sized Tropheops
Sexual dimorphismYesSexual dichromatism expected as in other Tropheops, with males more saturated; the specific colour pattern of this population has not been documented in independently published sources.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Gallireya Reef population

Tropheops sp. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya" "Gallireya Reef" is the Gallireya Reef population of Tropheops sp. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya", 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. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Gallireya Reef fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Tropheops sp. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya" is an undescribed mbuna recorded from Gallireya Reef, an offshore reef on the far northern Malawian coast close to Chilumba. Like Tropheops sp. "Macrophthalmus Chitimba" from the neighbouring bay, its trade name references Tropheops macrophthalmus, the described "big-eye" species of the northern lake, without asserting that the two are the same fish. Gallireya Reef is a true offshore structure rather than a shoreline formation, and several genera collected there carry their own distinct, reef-specific forms. It has no authority, no publication year, no FishBase number, and no IUCN assessment.

Full Tropheops sp. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Macrophthalmus Gallireya" "Gallireya Reef"
  2. malawi.si — Konings-based Lake Malawi cichlid species and locality database
  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)