Yellow chindongo

Chindongo flavus

Also known as Pseudotropheus flavus, Dinghani mbuna

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 75–82°F (24–28°C)
pH: 7.5–8.5
Adult size: 3.7 in (9.5 cm)
Minimum tank: 42 gal (160 L)
Temperament: Aggressive
Social behavior: Social
Tankmates: Tankmates with caution
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: Medium
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Lake Malawi, Dinghani Reef
Family: Cichlidae

Overview

The yellow chindongo is a rock-dwelling mbuna kept as a harem, one male with three or four females, because males are fiercely aggressive toward each other and females do not shoal together. It lives low among the rocks, grazing surfaces and holding a territory. It is aggressive, so choose tankmates with care: other mbuna of similar size and temperament, kept in a crowded, rock-filled tank that spreads out the fighting. Feed a mainly vegetable diet such as spirulina flakes, with occasional frozen brine shrimp or mysis. A rocky tank of around 160 liters or more gives a harem the territories and hiding places it needs.

In the wild

This mbuna comes from rocky reef habitat in Lake Malawi, where it grazes among boulders. Build the tank around rock: stacks of stone forming caves and passages over a sand base, with open water above for the male to patrol. Lake Malawi water is hard and alkaline, so keep it warm at about 24 to 28 C with a pH of roughly 7.5 to 8.5 and good mineral hardness. Plenty of rock lets females shelter and shifts the balance away from constant aggression.

Good to know

Chindongo flavus is a mbuna cichlid reaching around 9 to 10 centimeters, gold with dark vertical bars. It was long known as Pseudotropheus flavus until 2016, when the genus Chindongo was created for a group of small rock-dwelling species and named from a local word for these fish. It is a maternal mouthbrooder: the female incubates eggs and fry in her mouth. Breeding is of moderate difficulty when a dominant male holds a territory in a harem.

Did you know

When the genus Chindongo was split off from Pseudotropheus in 2016, the scientists named it with a local Malawian word for these small rock-dwelling cichlids, so the group now carries a name from the lake it came from.