Shabermouth cichlid

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Shabermouth cichlid
Male of the piebald morph.

Male of the piebald morph.

Systematics
Order : Cichliformes
Family : Cichlids (Cichlidae)
Subfamily : Pseudocrenilabrinae
Tribe : Haplochromini
Genre : Labeotropheus
Type : Shabermouth cichlid
Scientific name
Labeotropheus fuelleborni
Ahl , 1926

The Schabemund cichlid ( Labeotropheus fuelleborni ) is a species of cichlid that occurs in the rocky littoral of the East African Lake Malawi . The species was named in honor of the tropical medicine and natural scientist Friedrich Fülleborn .

features

The frontal view shows the lower mouth
Female of the piebald morph

The common cichlid grows to a maximum length of 12 cm in nature, in the aquarium it can reach a length of 15 cm. The species has the typical elongated shape of a mbuna , but differs from most of the other species in the group by its lower mouth. The Schabemund cichlid is very variable in color. In the most common morph, the males show a deep blue basic color and 8 to 12 vertical, darker bands on the sides of the body, the females are gray-blue. Another morph is darkly piebald, the males with a blue basic color, in the females it is ivory or yellowish orange. In Likoma there are monochrome light blue animals. There are also light blue specimens that have an orange spot on the sides of the body (in the Mbenji Islands), completely orange or those with orange rear areas of the dorsal and anal fin (in Cape MacLear ). In Chipoka , the males have a completely orange dorsal fin. Most animals show a dark band between the eyes and another between the nostrils.

Way of life

Male of a blue morph with red fins

The Schabemund cichlid lives in the rocky littoral of almost all of Lake Malawi, it only seems to be missing in the northeast on the Tanzanian coast. It feeds on growth and usually eats alone or in small groups. Sometimes, however, feeding schools of several hundred animals also form, which invade the territories of other Mbuna and scrape off the growth. In contrast to other Mbuna, the common cichlid does not have to stand upright when eating, but can eat in a "normal", i.e. horizontal posture thanks to its scraper mouth below. In addition to algae, it also eats worms, crustaceans, insects and dead plant material. Schabemund cichlids are territorial and aggressive towards one another. Like almost all Malawi cichlids, the common cichlid is a mouthbrooder .

literature

  • Horst Linke, Wolfgang Staeck: African cichlids, cichlids from East Africa. P. 54, Tetra Verlag, 1981, ISBN 3-8974-5103-4 .
  • Erwin Schraml: Labeothropheus fuelleborni. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 558.
  • Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 .

Web links

Commons : Schabemundbuntbarsch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files