Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tropheops sp. "Maleri Yellow"

Tropheops sp. "Maleri Yellow" "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. "Maleri Yellow" 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. "Maleri Yellow".

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
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 yellow; females and subordinate males presumed plainer, following genus pattern.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Namalenje Island population

Tropheops sp. "Maleri Yellow" "Namalenje Island" is the Namalenje Island population of Tropheops sp. "Maleri Yellow", 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. "Maleri Yellow", 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. "Maleri Yellow" is an undescribed mbuna documented at Namalenje Island and Nankoma Island, part of the Maleri Islands group in the west-central part of Lake Malawi. The Maleri Islands are a well-documented reef system that has yielded named colour forms across several mbuna genera, and this Tropheops is one of them, distinguished by yellow male coloration. It has never been formally described, and no authority, IUCN status, or FishBase entry should be attached to it.

Full Tropheops sp. "Maleri Yellow" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Maleri Yellow" "Namalenje 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 "Maleri Yellow" form