Tropheus polli "Nkwasi Point"
Nkwasi Point — n-KWAH-see POYNT (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 polli account →Specific to Nkwasi Point
- 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 polli.
The Nkwasi Point population
Tropheus polli "Nkwasi Point" is the Nkwasi Point population of Tropheus polli, 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 polli, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Nkwasi Point fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Tropheus polli is a rock-grazing cichlid endemic to a single stretch of Lake Tanganyika's central-eastern, Tanzanian shore, and one of the largest members of a genus better known for its many color races. It is also one of the more contested: some authorities treat it as a valid species, while Ad Konings folds the eastern populations into the older Tropheus annectens. Whatever name wins, this is a sedentary, algae-scraping reef fish that almost never leaves its few square meters of rock, and a notoriously demanding one in the aquarium.
Full Tropheus polli account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Tropheus polli 'Nkwasi Point'
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes - Axelrod 1977 reference (ref. 17764)
- FishBase: Tropheus polli summary
- FishBase: Tropheus polli original-description bibliography (type locality)
- FishBase: Tropheus polli territory list
- Konings (2013): New information on Tropheus annectens (anal-fin spine diagnosis, type locality)