Mbuna from Lake Malawi - Interesting Facts

Опубликовано: 17 Январь 2012
на канале: African Cichlid Hub

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In this video I will try and give you the viewer an in-depth and better understanding of Mbuna.

Mbuna (pronounced mboo-na) is the common name for a large group of African Cichlids from Lake Malawi.

This lake, the third largest in Africa and the eighth largest lake in the world is reportedly the habitat of more species of fish than any other body of freshwater on Earth, including more than 1000 species of Cichlids.

Mbuna require hard water and PH levels between 7.2 to 7.8, being a warm water fish the Temperature should be kept between 78 - 82°F

The name Mbuna means "rockfish" in the language of the Tonga people of Malawi.[1] As the name implies, Mbuna are the Cichilds that live among piles of rocks - There's also some Mbuna who spend more time in the shallow sandy .

The diversity of species is truly amazing, with new species being discovered at a prolific rate.

They have fascinating personalities that will keep you staring at your aquariums for hours.
They're highly territorial and can be quite aggressive towards their counter parts, defending their patch of rock or breeding area.
In the Lake they can be found in large groups of their own kind accompanied by dozens of other species.

Mbuna can reach up to 7" for example Yellow Tail Acei can reach 7" but the smaller of the Mbuna (Known as Dwarf Mbuna) will max out at around 3.5-4" For example Demasoni Pombo Rocks are classed as Dwarf Mbuna and can grow up to 4".

Foremost, Mbuna are algae -- grazing Cichlids (classed as herbivores) . In the wild, they spend most of the day scraping away at algae covered rocks.
Mbuna's intestines are around 4 x their body length, yes that's 4 x times it's body length -- designed to extract the proteins and carbohydrates from the hard-to-digest algae. They require foods containing high fibre that's why so much of their time in the wild is spent grazing on algae.
The diet of Mbuna kept in captivity should primarily consist of veggie based foods -- foods containing high proteins (for example) "beef heart foods" and bloodworms can cause Malawi Bloat, this can lead to death within a couple a days.

Sexing Mbuna can be tricky at times especially when a male and female from the same species can look identical (For example) Yellow Labs commonly known to most people as Electric Yellows. A method called Venting is needed when this is the case (A link to a video of me covering this subject is on the screen and will open in a new tab)
Some species are far more easier to sex for example p.s saulosi with the males being blue and black stripped and their females being a shade of yellow.

Mbuna are maternal mouth brooders (Meaning the female holds her offspring for a certain amount of time in her mouth) this time being between 21-28 days.
The breeding process begins with the male preparing a breeding area to help attract females, the breeding area is normally a well selected rock surface, patch of sand near a rock or a patch of sand out in the open. The male will clean his selected breeding area constantly -- removing any unwanted bits of substrate thus making the area appealing to possible breeding females.
The male will dart around his selected area showing off his breeding dress by shaking his body, the male and female will swim around in a circular motion, the female will drop eggs and then pick them up in her mouth, they continue this cycle until the female has dropped all of her eggs -- then it's the male turn, the male will shake his anal fin which in most cases will have egg spots on it, this basically tricking the female into thinking there's more eggs to pick but in fact this is when her eggs are being fertilized.

To wrap up Mbuna are a truly fascinating African Cichlid with differing personalities and such a diversity of species to choose from I recommend Mbuna to every fish keeper new or old to hobby.

Thank you for watching and please check out my How to African cichlid playlist found on my channel.

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