Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Xenotilapia ochrogenys

Xenotilapia ochrogenys "Mabilibili"

Mabilibili — mah-bee-lee-BEE-lee (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 Xenotilapia ochrogenys account →

Specific to Mabilibili

  • 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 Xenotilapia ochrogenys.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.3 in11 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth0–164 ft0–50 m
DietCarnivore — sand-sifter taking buried micro-invertebrates (chironomid larvae, aquatic worms, ostracods, copepods)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (within a promiscuous, polygynandrous mating system)~10–40 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males flush with a yellow-ochre cheek and brighter fins/body sheen; non-breeding males and females are camouflage silvery-sand. Dichromatism typical of a polygynous fish; X. singularis males (sibling species) additionally show 3–5 black flank blotches that ochrogenys lacks
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mabilibili population

Xenotilapia ochrogenys "Mabilibili" is the Mabilibili population of Xenotilapia ochrogenys, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Xenotilapia ochrogenys, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Mabilibili fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Xenotilapia ochrogenys is a small, silver, sand-dwelling cichlid of Lake Tanganyika that lives much of its life as part of a roving school over the shallow lakebed, sifting mouthfuls of sand for buried invertebrates. For a few frantic weeks each breeding season the school's drab males flush into color, stake out spawning grounds, and engage in a promiscuous free-for-all in which a single female's eggs may be fertilized by two or three different males before she takes the clutch into her mouth to brood. That maternal mouthbrooding is itself notable: the genus Xenotilapia is one of the very few cichlid lineages in which biparental and female-only brood care sit side by side on the family tree, and ochrogenys falls cleanly on the maternal side of that divide.

Full Xenotilapia ochrogenys account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Xenotilapia ochrogenys "Mabilibili"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — ochrogenys, Enantiopus (Boulenger 1914), valid as Xenotilapia ochrogenys
  3. FishBase — Xenotilapia ochrogenys (Boulenger, 1914)
  4. FishBase — Reproduction summary, Xenotilapia ochrogenys
  5. GBIF — Xenotilapia ochrogenys (Boulenger, 1914), accepted taxon (speciesKey 2369825)
  6. Kidd, Duftner, Koblmüller, Sturmbauer & Hofmann 2012 — Repeated Parallel Evolution of Parental Care Strategies within Xenotilapia (PLoS ONE 7(2):e31236)