Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus cunningtoni

Lepidiolamprologus cunningtoni "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 Neolamprologus cunningtoni 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 Neolamprologus cunningtoni.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size11.5 in29.1 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth3–66 ft1–20 m
DietPiscivore; hunts smaller fishes (sand-dwelling cichlids, shell-dwellers) over open sand; also takes crustaceans; juveniles begin on planktonic prey.
BreedingSubstrate spawner; excavates cave nests among rocks or at the sand–structure boundary.~500 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales significantly larger (up to ~30 cm) than females (rarely exceeding 20 cm); sexes otherwise similar in patterning.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mbita Island population

Lepidiolamprologus cunningtoni "Mbita Island" is the Mbita Island population of Lepidiolamprologus cunningtoni, 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 Lepidiolamprologus cunningtoni, 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

Neolamprologus cunningtoni is a large, sand-cruising predatory cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, where it patrols the open margins between rock and sand hunting smaller fish. Among the most elongate and heavily built of the lake's lamprologines, it is one of the biggest members of the tribe, with males approaching a foot in length. It is common in the wild but uncommon in aquaria, partly because it grows too large and too plainly colored to tempt most keepers, and partly because of a long-running taxonomic tug-of-war over which genus it actually belongs to.

Full Neolamprologus cunningtoni account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Lepidiolamprologus cunningtoni "Mbita Island"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — cunningtoni, Lamprologus (Boulenger 1906)
  3. FishBase — Neolamprologus cunningtoni summary
  4. GBIF — Lepidiolamprologus cunningtoni (Boulenger, 1906)
  5. Stiassny (1997) — A Phylogenetic Overview of the Lamprologine Cichlids of Africa, S. Afr. J. Sci. 93:513–523
  6. Evolutionary history of the Lake Tanganyika cichlid tribe Lamprologini (Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.)
  7. IUCN Red List — Lepidiolamprologus cunningtoni "Mbita Island"