The Malawi Cichlid You Never Knew

Here is your controversial statement of the day: Lake Malawi Cichlids are the coolest fish you can keep in an aquarium. You may fight me in the comments section. It seems like every single fish that we see from the rift is active, hardy, gorgeous, easy to breed and appropriately sized. Perhaps the only thing they lack is rarity, as most if not all are easily bred in captivity; gorgeous fish from the genus Labidochromis, Pseudotropheus and others are easily and fairly inexpensively available from nearly every Local Fish Store in North America.

This is where we introduce to to a lesser known player from the region, a Cichlid with a few names, none of which are all that common. Its scientific name is Maylandi hajomaylandi, so named to honor the cichlid enthusiast and author Hans Mayland. It is most frequently called the Pombo Cichlid or the Hajo Cichlid. Pombo Rocks is a formation in Lake Malawi where these are found, and Hajo is obviously a shortening of its scientific name. It's also called Maylandi hajomaylandi, Zebra Greeberi and just Greeberi. This seems like a lot of names for a fish that is rarely seen in aquaria!

Maylandi hajomaylandi is an African Cichlid from Lake Malawi, endemic (only found at) to Chizumulu Island and Pombo Rocks. There they live in groups that stay close to the rock formations, feeding primarily on biofilm and small invertebrates. This should be kept in mind when designing your display for them. They like a lot of rocks to establish territories in, and some gravel to dig in and move about. Substrate should not be too fine, or it will be suspended in the water constantly. There the water is relatively warm and alkaline; we suggest keeping them in the upper 70s Fahrenheit at a pH between 7 and 8.3. As always, stability of the parameter is more important than the actual number as long as it falls into a general range. They enjoy clean water and flow, so don't be afraid to oversize filtration, and keep up the regular water changes.

Pombo Cichlids are like most other Mbuna cichlids in their ease of maintenance. They greedily accept most foods; here we feed them a mix of pellets from nutramar, a fine meaty mix and a good proportion of spirulina, which helps round out a diet similar to their natural one. They are easily kept in groups of any size, as long as all the individuals are of similar size. While they will defend a spawning site vigorously, they are middle of the road aggression wise for a rift Lake Cichlid, and would be a reasonable candidate for mixed cichlid aquariums, as long as those choices are made carefully. We have seen a local LFS house them with a mix of Haplochromis without ill effect. Here we keep them in species specific holding. Maylandi hajomaylandi are amazing for their willingness to breed in captivity. In fact, given a good distribution of males and females, and reasonably appropriate water quality, it would be difficult to stop them breeding. Males will be absolutely gorgeous when sexually mature and will claim a territory, clear it of substrate and court females. A female who accepts this courtship will hold the eggs in her mouth after they breed and will continue to hold them there for 3 weeks until the fry are free-swimming. At that point, the fry are easily raised on size appropriate foods.

If you're the person looking for the most amazing African Cichlid that no one else has, or you just want another gorgeous Malawi Cichlid, you've landed in the right place. There is nothing like them for activity, easy care requirements, willingness to breed with a high probability of success in raising the fry and straight up stunning looks. If you're interested, and you should be, have your Local Fish Store get a hold of us at Aquatropic today!