Tropheops sp. "Taiwan" "Taiwanee Reef"

Taiwanee Reefty-WAHN-ee REEF (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. "Taiwan" account →

Specific to Taiwanee Reef

  • 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. "Taiwan".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4 in10.5 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth16–66 ft5–20 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 dimorphismYesSexual dichromatism expected as in other Tropheops, with dominant males more saturated; a full, independently published colour description is not available for this form.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Taiwanee Reef population

Tropheops sp. "Taiwan" "Taiwanee Reef" is the Taiwanee Reef population of Tropheops sp. "Taiwan", 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. "Taiwan", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Taiwanee Reef fish at malawi.si

About the species

Tropheops sp. "Taiwan" is an undescribed mbuna recorded from Taiwanee Reef, an isolated offshore reef in the central-northern part of Lake Malawi known for a strong, near-constant current and a distinctive, apparently ancient cichlid fauna. The trade name records only the reef, without a colour qualifier. Taiwanee Reef is one of the more thoroughly documented isolated reefs in the lake, having drawn attention from field researchers precisely because its cichlid community appears to have persisted there with minimal outside contact for a long time. It has no authority, no publication year, no FishBase number, and no IUCN assessment.

Full Tropheops sp. "Taiwan" account →

Sources

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