Male at Chitande Island
A male of Metriaclima melissa at Chitande Island, Lake Malawi [Malawi]. Photo by Ad Konings. determiner Ad Konings

Family
Cichlidae

Sub-family
Pseudocrenilabrinae

Genus
Metriaclima


Curator

Published:

Last updated on:
27-May-2023

Metriaclima melissa Stauffer & Konings, 2023


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Original description as Metriaclima melissae:

ZooBank:70E1E8BD-6C9A-4041-9F7F-11806AC5C626.

Conservation: Metriaclima melissa is not evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species. Two of the three known variants, "Chailosi" and "Chewere", are very popular aquarium fish and regularly exported from the lake, however, it never appeared that the local populations were negatively affected from the extraction by the ornamental fish collectors and have been common residents whenever scuba divers visit their habitats. Both these geographical variants are also bred commercially which also takes the pressure off the wild populations. Over-collection for the ornamental fish trade would be the only threat to the well-being of M. melissa as it is not caught by local fishers.