Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tyrannochromis macrostoma

Tyrannochromis macrostoma "Likoma Island"Big-mouth Hap

Tyrannochromis macrostoma (Chiwi Rocks, Gome, Likoma Island, Tanzania)

Likoma Island — lee-KOH-mah 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 Tyrannochromis macrostoma account →

Specific to Likoma 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 Tyrannochromis macrostoma.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2019
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesTyrannochromis macrostomadescribed as Haplochromis macrostoma Regan 1922 · this species
Scientific size12 in30 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 179 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth16–98 ft5–30 m
DietPiscivore (hunts mbuna & other small fish)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderup to ~150 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales much larger (~35 cm vs ~24 cm) and, when breeding, brilliant light blue with a pale-yellow belly and a near-black lower body; females and juveniles yellowish grey-silver with a dark mid-lateral stripe.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Likoma Island population

Tyrannochromis macrostoma "Likoma Island" is the Likoma Island population of Tyrannochromis macrostoma, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Tyrannochromis macrostoma, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Likoma Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Tyrannochromis macrostoma is a big-jawed, fish-eating cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, where it patrols the sediment-dusted rocky shore hunting mbuna with a sudden sideways lunge. Its most arresting trait is reversed countershading: the belly darkens to near-black during a hunt, the opposite of almost every other fish, a camouflage trick tied to the head-down, tilted angle from which it strikes. Despite a fearsome mouth, it is a comparatively calm predator outside the breeding season, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern across its lake-wide range.

Full Tyrannochromis macrostoma account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tyrannochromis macrostoma "Likoma Island"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Tyrannochromis macrostoma (Regan 1922)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Haplochromis polyodon (synonym of T. macrostoma)
  4. FishBase: Tyrannochromis macrostoma
  5. GBIF: Tyrannochromis macrostoma occurrence and taxonomy
  6. Chavula et al. (2023), Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa basin: Status, challenges, and research needs, J. Great Lakes Research 49(6):102241
  7. IUCN Red List — Tyrannochromis macrostoma "Likoma Island"
Add this species card to your site

Paste this into a product listing, club page or blog post. It shows this species’ size, water ranges and conservation status, kept current from the atlas, with a link to this page. Free to use; keep the link intact, as it is the attribution. How the card works.

<div data-atlas="species/tyrannochromis-macrostoma-likoma-island"><a href="https://www.aquaristatlas.com/species/tyrannochromis-macrostoma-likoma-island/">Tyrannochromis macrostoma "Likoma Island" on Aquarist Atlas</a></div>
<script src="https://www.aquaristatlas.com/embed/v1/card.js" async referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></script>