Location: From Chilumba to he southern tip of Chirwa Island.
Biotope: Intermediate Habitat from 10-25 metres.
Size: 10cm with slightly smaller females, 9cm.
Diet: Mainly consists of a mixture of plankton and algae. Like chailosi and chewere, the females and non-territorial males school in mid water feeding on plankton.
Related Species: Ps. sp. ‘elongatus chailosi’
Temperment: Males are quite aggressive and guard their tunnel nest against all conspecifics including intruding females not willing to spawn. When females are ready to spawn she will approach the male with fins down showing her submissiveness. The male then shimmies in front of her and flashes his intense colours to entice her to spawn. In the aquarium, males can be quite aggressive to females and may even kill them if there isn’t enough to spread the aggression.
Spawning Behaviour: Males dig their tunnel nests under rocks. Spawning takes place within the tunnel. Sometimes male can be as close as a metre apart in dense populated areas. There is no apparent breeding season. Males can be very pushy with females to get them to spawn in the aquaria. I suggest atleast 3 females per male.
Breeding: Much like the other species, spawning is done with the egg spot method. Females are lighter in colour than chailosi or chewere and males don’t exhibit as dark of coloration. Females hold about 15-20 eggs for about 25 days. The fry are lighter in colour much like the female. Also this species isn’t as elongated as chewere. Females are a light tan/brown colour while males are bluish with brown stripes. The also have yellow pectoral fins which not seen in the other two species where theirs are black.
References:
Konings, Ad. (1990). Ad Konings's Book of Cichlids and All The Other Fishes of Lake Malawi: NJ: T.F.H. Publications Inc.
Konings, Ad. (1997). Back to Nature Guide to: Malawi Cichlids: Germany: Fohrman Aquaristik AB |
