Blotch melanochromis

Care at a glance

Overview

This is an aggressive rock-dwelling mbuna from Lake Malawi, so plan the tank around its temper rather than its size. Keep one male with a few females so his aggression is spread out, and give the group broken rockwork with clear territories and sight breaks. It works the lower half of the tank and treats anything small enough to swallow, including fry, as food, so choose robust tankmates of similar size and temperament and pick them with care. Feed a mixed diet of quality cichlid pellets, spirulina flake, and frozen foods such as mysis or brine shrimp. A tank of around 250 liters or more gives you room to build the rock piles it needs.

In the wild

In Lake Malawi it lives where sandy patches meet rock, around Membe Point, hunting through the broken stone of the shoreline. Recreate that with a sandy floor, piles of stacked rock forming caves and crevices, and open swimming lanes between them. The water is hard and alkaline and stays warm, so aim for 24 to 28 C and a pH of 7.5 to 8.5 with good filtration and steady oxygen.

Good to know

Melanochromis baliodigma belongs to the cichlid family and reaches around 11 centimeters. Most of the genus wears clean horizontal pinstripes, but this species breaks the pattern into a chain of dark blotches, which is where both the scientific and common names point. Like other Malawi mbuna it is a maternal mouthbrooder of medium difficulty: the female holds the eggs and fry in her mouth for about three weeks before releasing free-swimming young.

Did you know

In a genus known for tidy horizontal stripes, baliodigma is the odd one out, its markings smudged into ragged blotches. That broken pattern is thought to work as camouflage against the mottled rock it hunts over.

Common questions

Related species

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• 

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