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propos ofwhich, it shouldbe stated
that,essentially,theaquariumsize re-
quired formbunadependsnotsomuchon
the expected eventual size but more on
the social behavior of these cichlids.Male
mbunanotonlyneed todefenda territory
against competingmales, but this spaw-
ning territorymustalsobe largeenough to
feed the so-called alpha male. Typical
mbuna feedmainlyonAufwuchs, iealgae
and the small organisms it contains. This
way of life explains the huge aggressive-
ness shownby territorialmbunamales to-
wards conspecificmales. And the females
are frequentlyattacked,as in thewildonly
females that are ready to spawn visit the
territoryof amale. In theaquarium,whose
total size is often smaller than the spaw-
ning territory of an mbuna male in the
wild, the courtshipbehavior of amale can
thus easily change to aggressionbecause
the female isn’t ready tospawn.Toput it in
human terms,themaledoesn’tunderstand
whata female isdoing inhis territory if she
isn’t ready to spawn.She is then seen as a
competitor for foodandattacked.
What isadwarf cichlid?
A largepercentage of thembuna species
can be seen as dwarf cichlids, ie cichlids
that don’t exceed a total lengthof 10 cm,
at least inLakeMalawi.Matters are,howe-
ver,ratherdifferent in theaquarium,where
many species grow a good third larger
than theydo in thewild.On theonehand
this is linked to theappreciablyhighernu-
tritional value of the food supply that the
A
Thecolorfulnessof the rock-dwellingcichlidsof LakeMalawi - alsoknown
by thenativename "mbuna" – sets theheart of practically every aquarist
beating.Andhence thequestionconstantlyarisesofwhether thereareany
small species that canalsobe kept andbred in smaller aquariaof around
100 litersvolume.
Dwarf cichlids from
LakeMalawi
byAndreas Jung
fishes receive in theaquarium,andon the
othermbunanever liveas long in thewild
as in theaquarium.Because fisheskeepon
growing throughout their lives, many of
the popular species can attain a good 15
cm long.
A truedwarf:
Pseudotropheusdemasoni
P.demasoni
is oneof the smallest of all the
mbuna species and grows to only 6-8 cm
long.Inthewildmalesdon’tseriouslydefend
their territories against conspecific males.
This peacefulness is linked to the fact that
this species is sexuallymonochromatic, ie
maleandfemaleare (practically)thesame in
coloration.Inalmostallothermbunatheop-
posite is the caseandmaleand female can
be toldapartwithoutproblemon thebasis
ofcoloration.Inthewildand intheaquarium
low-rankingmalesofmanymbuna species
adopt female coloration and thus avoid
beingattackedby territorialmales.The fact
thatmaleand femaleare the same color in
P.demasoni
thusdemonstrates theparticu-
larlypeacefulcharacterofthespecies.Unfor-
tunately,however, this applies primarily to
life inthewild.Forunknownreasons
P.dema-
soni
areamongthemost intolerantofall the
mbuna in theaquariumandhence should
be kept in relatively large aquaria despite
theirsmall size.
Cichlids
Pseudotropheusdemasoni
All photos:FrankSchäfer
