Blue dolphin cichlid

Care at a glance

Overview

This is a big fish that needs a big tank, 250 liters or more, with open sand and room to cruise the middle of the water column. It's calm for a Malawi cichlid but gets territorial when breeding. Keep it in a group with one male to several females. Feed cichlid pellets along with frozen brine shrimp and some spirulina or other plant matter.

In the wild

The blue dolphin cichlid lives over open sand in the shallows of Lake Malawi, with rock piles scattered nearby. That tells you what it wants in the tank: a deep sand bed, lots of clear swimming space, and a few rock structures rather than a wall of stone. The lake is hard and alkaline, so match that with a pH of 7.5 to 8.5 and warm water in the mid to high 20s C.

Good to know

Cyrtocara moorii is the only species in its genus, in the family Cichlidae. Adults reach around 25 cm, and the males develop a pronounced forehead hump as they mature. It's a maternal mouthbrooder, with the female holding eggs and fry in her mouth until they can fend for themselves. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern.

Did you know

In the lake, these fish shadow sand-sifting cichlids and snap up the small invertebrates those fish kick out of the substrate. It's a free meal, so they basically follow the diggers around and let them do the work.

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