Tropheops sp. "Red Fin" "Lundu"

LunduLOON-doo (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 Fin" account →

Specific to Lundu

  • 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 Fin".

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
Depth10–66 ft3–20 m
DietAlgae grazer, scraping aufwuchs from rock surfaces using specialised comb-like teeth
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; expected modest, a few dozen eggs, by analogy with similarly sized Tropheops
Sexual dimorphismYesJuveniles and females carry an orange-red anal fin and lower tail; males pass through a barred intermediate phase to a fully orange or orange-blue mature pattern, sometimes retaining barring.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Lundu population

Tropheops sp. "Red Fin" "Lundu" is the Lundu population of Tropheops sp. "Red Fin", a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Malawi in the northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Tropheops sp. "Red Fin", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Lundu fish at malawi.si

About the species

Tropheops sp. "Red Fin" is one of the earliest-documented undescribed mbuna of Lake Malawi, named informally in 1983 by the ichthyologist Anton Ribbink and colleagues during their landmark survey of the lake's rock-dwelling cichlids. The name refers to the orange-red anal fin and lower tail carried by juveniles and females, a marking that persists to some degree even in colourful adult males. It is a widespread rock-dwelling algae grazer recorded from both the western and eastern shores of the lake and well into Mozambican and Tanzanian waters. Despite its long history in the literature it has never been formally described, so it carries no authority, no publication year, no FishBase number, and no IUCN assessment.

Full Tropheops sp. "Red Fin" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Red Fin" "Lundu"
  2. malawi.si — Konings-based Lake Malawi cichlid species and locality database
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Malawi cichlid genus and undescribed-form references (Ad Konings, curator)
  4. Konings, A. (ed.) — Cichlids Yearbook, Volume 4 (Cichlid Press)