Tropheops sp. "Membe" "Tumbi Point"
Tropheops sp. "Membe" (Likoma Island, Maingano Island, Mala Point, Masimbwe Island, Mbweca Rocks, Ndomo Point, Tumbi Point)
Tumbi Point — TOOM-bee POYNT (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. "Membe" account →Specific to Tumbi Point
- 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. "Membe".
The Tumbi Point population
Tropheops sp. "Membe" "Tumbi Point" is the Tumbi Point population of Tropheops sp. "Membe", a geographic colour form from the Mozambique coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Tropheops sp. "Membe", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Tumbi Point fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Tropheops sp. 'membe' is an undescribed rock-dwelling mbuna documented from the Likoma-Chizumulu island group in the middle of Lake Malawi and the nearby Mozambique shore, a compact archipelago region that is home to a number of distinct, narrowly distributed Tropheops forms. It is known to hobbyists only by this trade name; the origin of the name itself is not confirmed here, and no formal scientific description exists.
Full Tropheops sp. "Membe" account →Sources
- malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Membe" "Tumbi Point"
- Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 5th ed. (Cichlid Press)
- Konings, A. — Cichlids Yearbook, Vols. 3 & 6 (Cichlid Press) — geographic patchiness of Malawi mbuna colour forms; rarity of interspecific hybridisation in the lake
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Genus record (authority for valid names; this trade name has no catalog entry)