Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Blue" "Mbenji Island"
Mbenji Island — m-BEHN-jee 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. "Mbenji Blue" account →Specific to Mbenji 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. "Mbenji Blue".
The Mbenji Island population
Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Blue" "Mbenji Island" is the Mbenji Island population of Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Blue", 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. "Mbenji Blue", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mbenji Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Blue" is an undescribed mbuna recorded from Mbenji Island, an offshore island in west-central Lake Malawi known among hobbyists for producing distinctive, tightly localised colour forms across several cichlid genera. The trade name describes the blue coloration reported in dominant males. It is one of a number of "Mbenji"-tagged forms — Copadichromis sp. "Mbenji Blue" among the utaka is another — reflecting how consistently this single island has generated its own recognisable populations. It has no authority, no publication year, no FishBase number, and no IUCN assessment.
Full Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Blue" account →