Kingsizei zebra

Care at a glance

Overview

A small mbuna best kept as a harem, one male with three or more females, so his attention spreads across the group rather than landing on a single fish. It grazes and holds a small territory near the bottom around rockwork, and like most zebras it is scrappy, so pick equally sturdy mbuna as neighbors and choose tankmates with care. Feed a vegetable-based diet of spirulina flake and algae wafers, since a gut built for grazing suffers on too much protein. A rockwork tank of around 160 liters or more gives a male room to claim a cave and the females space to retreat.

In the wild

Maylandia pulpican lives in the intermediate zone of Lake Malawi around Likoma Island, where broken rock meets open sand at roughly 10 to 20 meters down. Recreate that with a base of sand, a stack of rounded stones for caves and sightline breaks, and open swimming lanes between them. The lake is hard, alkaline and very stable, so keep the water warm at 24 to 28 C and the pH high, between 7.5 and 8.5, with strong filtration and steady maintenance.

Good to know

This is a member of the Cichlidae, in the mbuna group of Lake Malawi rock cichlids, reaching about 9 centimeters. Males turn light blue crossed by dark bars while females stay a plainer brassy tone. Like all Malawi zebras it is a maternal mouthbrooder: the female holds the fertilized eggs and then the fry in her mouth for around three weeks, which rates as medium difficulty to reproduce in a tank. The hobby knew it as Pseudotropheus sp. kingsizei for years before its formal description.

Did you know

The trade nicknamed this modest 9 centimeter fish kingsizei, but its scientific name looks the other way. Pulpican comes from the poulpican, a goblin-like dwarf of Breton folklore, a nod to the way this little cichlid harries fish much larger than itself while guarding its patch.

Common questions

Related species

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  3.9 in (10 cm)53 gal (200 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)
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• Shell mbuna

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• 

  Mpanga red-top zebra

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• 

  Mbenji zebra

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• Fireback zebra

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  4.3 in (11 cm)53 gal (200 L)75–82°F (24–28°C)