Zebra Mbuna Maylandia/Metriaclima (prev. Pseudotropheus) zebra

The Zebra complex of the Mbuna ("rock fish") cichlids of Lake Malawi in Africa's Rift Valley are so named because many (but not all) of them have dark vertical bars on their flanks. The Zebra Mbuna species has a slight "dog muzzle" face with a fairly low mouth, but not as low as the Labeotropheus genus.

Lake Malawi, 580km long, is longer than Portugal and very deep. There are many colour and pattern variants of Zebra Mbuna, mainly on a gender or regional basis. Most males are blue-bodied (light or dark blue) with darker blue or black stripes. But males can be yellow. The male forehead grows out with age. Adult males also have a few "egg spots" on their anal fin.

Females are usually brown-yellow, grey or mottled grey on off-white/pale yellow. They mouth-brood their young.

They grow to 10-11cm long and eat algae and plankton. Taxonomic relationships between the zebras (and the other 700+ cichlids in the lake) are still being worked out.