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

Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Yellow" "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 Yellow" 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 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 Mbenji Island population

Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Yellow" "Mbenji Island" is the Mbenji Island population of Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Yellow", 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 Yellow", 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 Yellow" is an undescribed mbuna documented at Mbenji Island and neighbouring Fuawe Island, an isolated offshore reef system in the west-central part of Lake Malawi. Mbenji Island sits well out from the mainland shore and hosts several endemic mbuna forms found nowhere else in the lake; this Tropheops, marked by yellow male coloration, is one of them. It has never been formally described, and no authority, IUCN status, or FishBase entry should be attached to it.

Full Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Yellow" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Mbenji Yellow" "Mbenji 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 "Mbenji Yellow" form