Tyrannochromis nigriventer "Matema"
Tyrannochromis nigriventer (Cape Kaiser, Chimwalani Reef, Chinyamwezi Island, Lundu, Magunga, Maleri Island, Matema, Mbenji Island, Ndumbi Rocks, Ngwasi, Nkhata Bay, Taiwanee Reef)
Matema — mah-TEH-mah (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 nigriventer account →Specific to Matema
- 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 nigriventer.
The Matema population
Tyrannochromis nigriventer "Matema" is the Matema population of Tyrannochromis nigriventer, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Tyrannochromis nigriventer, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Matema fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Tyrannochromis nigriventer is a large, predatory haplochromine cichlid found only in Lake Malawi, where it hunts smaller fish among sediment-free rocky reefs. Its genus name promises a tyrant, and the fish lives up to it: a stealthy ambush hunter that drifts along the boulders and engulfs unwary mbuna. Comparatively scarce in the wild and rarely seen in the trade, it is routinely sold under the wrong name — its history is tangled with that of its bigger cousin Tyrannochromis macrostoma, the lake's true 'dark-belly'. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, even as the lake it depends on faces mounting pressure.
Full Tyrannochromis nigriventer account →Sources
- malawi.si — Tyrannochromis nigriventer "Matema"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Tyrannochromis nigriventer (California Academy of Sciences)
- FishBase: Tyrannochromis nigriventer Eccles, 1989
- Trewavas, E. (1990). The genus Tyrannochromis Eccles & Trewavas — macrostoma vs nigriventer 'dark-belly' identity, premaxillary pedicel test (in Konings 1990b, Cichlidae BCA 11(3))
- Eccles, D.H. & Trewavas, E. (1989). Malawian Cichlid Fishes: The Classification of Some Haplochromine Genera — original description, pp. 101-103
- Msukwa et al. (2021). Vulnerability assessment of Lake Malawi's ornamental fish resources to export ornamental trade. Fisheries Research 238:105869
- IUCN Red List — Tyrannochromis nigriventer "Matema"