Tropheops sp. "Red Cheek" "Maingano Island"
Maingano Island — mah-een-GAH-noh 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. "Red Cheek" account →Specific to Maingano 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. "Red Cheek".
The Maingano Island population
Tropheops sp. "Red Cheek" "Maingano Island" is the Maingano Island population of Tropheops sp. "Red Cheek", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Tropheops sp. "Red Cheek", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Maingano Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Tropheops sp. 'red cheek' is an undescribed rock mbuna named for a reddish patch on the male's cheek and operculum. It is documented from two geographically separate parts of Lake Malawi under the same trade name: the Likoma-Chizumulu island group in the middle of the lake, and the Cape Maclear area around Thumbi West Island roughly 124 mi to the south. No formal scientific description exists for either population.
Full Tropheops sp. "Red Cheek" account →