Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Xenotilapia spiloptera

Xenotilapia spiloptera "Mbita Island"

Mbita Island — m-BEE-tah 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 Xenotilapia spiloptera account →

Specific to Mbita 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 Xenotilapia spiloptera.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.8 in9.6 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth0–328 ft0–100 m
DietCarnivore — sifts sand and fine sediment through the gills for benthic insect larvae; occasionally schools in mid-water to feed on zooplankton.
BreedingBiparental mouthbrooder~40 eggs (up to ~50)
Sexual dimorphismYesSexes are very similar and hard to tell apart by eye; males average slightly larger than females, but coloration and the blotched dorsal are shared by both sexes.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mbita Island population

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

Colour reference: living Mbita Island fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Xenotilapia spiloptera is a small, pastel-toned sand-sifting cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, where it works the blurred boundary between rock and open sand. Like the rest of its genus it feeds by taking mouthfuls of substrate and winnowing edible larvae through its gills, and like only a handful of cichlid lineages it raises its young as a biparental mouthbrooder, passing the developing brood from the female's mouth to the male's partway through incubation. Reliably hardy by Xenotilapia standards, it is the species most often recommended to aquarists taking their first run at this notoriously delicate group.

Full Xenotilapia spiloptera account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Xenotilapia spiloptera "Mbita Island"
  2. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Xenotilapia spilopterus
  3. FishBase — Xenotilapia spilopterus summary
  4. The taxonomic diversity of the cichlid fish fauna of ancient Lake Tanganyika (208 valid species inventory)
  5. Evolutionary relationships in the sand-dwelling cichlid lineage of Lake Tanganyika (convergent biparental mouthbrooding)
  6. Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika (O'Reilly et al. 2003, Nature)