Melanochromis kaskazini

Melanochromis kaskazini

Melanochromis kaskazini was described in 2009 by Konings-Dudin, Konings and Stauffer. The name Kaskazini comes from Kiswahili and means ‘northern’.

Before this species was officially described, it had the temporary names Melanochromis sp. ‘northern blue’, Konings, 1995 and Melanochromis sp. ‘northern blue’, Konings, 1995.

Description

The males can reach a length of about 14 centimeters in the wild. Melanochromis kaskazini females remain slightly smaller. In the aquarium they sometimes get a bit bigger. We often feed our fish too much and too powerful food.

Like most Melanochromis species, males and females have an inverted melanin pattern. Both have horizontal stripes but in different colours. Males are dark/cobalt blue with a lighter blue between the two dark stripes. The females are light in color. On the light ground color they have two dark stripes tending to black. The anal fin of the Melanochromis kaskazini female is yellow/orange where it is white in many other species.

Author

John de Lange

Copyright images

Mark Thomas – Marks Fiskenarie

References

Descriptions of three new species of Melanochromis – Konings-Dudin, Gertrud & Konings, Ad & Stauffer, Jay. (2009).