The cichlids of Lake Malawi, East Africa can easily rival marine fishes in colouration, but are much hardier and easier to keep. There are over 1000 different cichlid species in Lake Malawi, many of our stores carry a large selection of these in stock at any one time. Our stocks include fairly common species, through to rarer ones, and even new species, which are currently undescribed to science. Malawi cichlids largely fall into two main groups, Utaka ('yoo-tarka') and Mbuna ('m-boona'). 

All of these fish are maternal mouthbrooders, that is, the female holds the eggs and baby fish in her mouth for around 25 days, until they are big enough to fend for themselves - during this time, she will not usually feed.