Tropheus moorii "Ninde"

NindeNEEN-deh (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 Tropheus moorii account →

Specific to Ninde

  • 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 Tropheus moorii.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2006
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.5 in14.5 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH7.8–9alkaline
Depth3–49 ft1–15 m
Dietherbivore — grazes the algal aufwuchs film on upper rocks
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodersmall, ~5–25 large eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesweak; sexes similar — venting or behaviour needed to sex reliably
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Ninde population

Tropheus moorii "Ninde" is the Ninde population of Tropheus moorii, 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 Tropheus moorii, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Ninde fish at tanganyika.si

About the species

Tropheus moorii, the blunthead cichlid, is a stocky, algae-grazing cichlid found only along the rocky shores of Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. It is famous less for any single appearance than for the opposite: across the lake it splinters into well over a hundred geographically isolated color forms, a living textbook of how populations diverge when they cannot mix. Hardy in the wild but notoriously demanding in a tank, it is a fish that rewards keepers who respect its strict vegetarian gut and its volatile social life.

Full Tropheus moorii account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Tropheus moorii 'Ninde'
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (California Academy of Sciences) — Tropheus moorii
  3. FishBase — Tropheus moorii (Blunthead cichlid)
  4. GBIF — Tropheus moorii Boulenger, 1898
  5. Sefc et al., Sexual dimorphism and population divergence in the genus Tropheus — Frontiers in Zoology
  6. Kerschbaumer & Sturmbauer et al., Delineating species along shifting shorelines: Tropheus from the southern subbasin of Lake Tanganyika
  7. Raeymaekers et al., Contrasting parasite communities among allopatric colour morphs of the Lake Tanganyika cichlid Tropheus — BMC
  8. IUCN Red List — Tropheus moorii "Ninde"