The zebra mbuna (''Maylandia zebra'') is a species of

cichlid Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have contradicted this ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest fre ...

in Africa. This species can reach a length of . It feeds on aufwuchs, a surface layer of mostly algal material that grows on rocks. This cichlid is a mouthbrooder and the female broods the eggs in her mouth for about three weeks. This fish can sometimes be found in the

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

trade.

Description

The zebra mbuna has a single dorsal fin with sixteen to nineteen spines and seven to ten soft rays. The anal fin has three to four spines and six to nine soft rays. It grows to a maximum length of SL. The male fish varies in colour in different parts of its range, in some locations having a dark head, throat and belly and in others a blue head, whitish throat and grey/blue belly. In both cases the body is bright blue with up to eight grey/black bars, the dorsal fin is blue and the anal fin is blue to grey, with one to five orange to yellow spots. The female zebra mbuna is polymorphic, that is to say it occurs in two different colour forms. In one morph the head and body colour is pale brownish-grey, with similar coloured dorsal, anal and caudal fins, the pectoral fins have grey rays and clear membranes, and the black pelvic fins have white leading edges. In the other colour morph the throat is brown and the head and body are dark brown to black, the body having blue highlights. The dorsal and caudal fins are a similar brown/black colour and so are the anal fins, but on them, the trailing edges have a number of yellow spots. The pectorals have brown rays and clear membranes, and the black pelvic fins have white leading edges.

Distribution and habitat

The zebra mbuna is endemic to Lake Malawi where it is found in rocky areas, both where there is sediment and where the rock is bare at depths between .

Biology

The zebra mbuna largely feeds on aufwuchs, an

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

-based community of organisms adhering to rock surfaces. It also consumes

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

and small

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s. Its mobile mouth is at the tip of its snout with bicuspid teeth at the front and widely spaced tricuspid teeth behind. It holds its body at right angles to the rock and presses its mouth against the surface, repeatedly opening and closing it, and these actions scrape off the loose aufwuchs which it then ingests. The zebra mbuna is a maternal

mouth brooding Mouthbrooding, also known as oral incubation and buccal incubation, is the care given by some groups of animals to their offspring by holding them in the mouth of the parent for extended periods of time. Although mouthbrooding is performed by a va ...

cichlid. The female broods the eggs and early stage young in her mouth for 18 to 24 days. During this time she is unable to feed and she loses weight. When mature enough, the fry are expelled into the open water and quickly find natural shelter in which to hide. A study by Pierottia et al. (2008) investigated whether the colour morph of the female influenced the male's choice of mate. It was found that the male's preference in mate colouring was best predicted by the colour morph of his mother and that he was not influenced in his choice by his rearing experience.

Use in aquaria

This fish is popular for the aquarium trade.

Genome

A draft nuclear genome assembly of ''Maylandia zebra'' was first published in 2008. A second, independent draft genome was also published in 2014 and subsequently improved upon in 2015 with

Pacific Biosciences Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (aka PacBio) is an American biotechnology company founded in 2004 that develops and manufactures systems for gene sequencing and some novel real time biological observation. PacBio describes its platfor ...

single-molecule real-time sequencing Single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing is a parallelized single molecule DNA sequencing method. Single-molecule real-time sequencing utilizes a zero-mode waveguide (ZMW). A single DNA polymerase enzyme is affixed at the bottom of a ZMW with a ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q882663

Zebra mbuna The zebra mbuna (''Maylandia zebra'') is a species of cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi in Africa. This species can reach a length of . It feeds on aufwuchs, a surface layer of mostly algal material that grows on rocks. This cichlid is a mouthbroo ...

Fish described in 1899 Taxa named by George Albert Boulenger Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN