Blue Victoria Mouthbrooder

About

Sold everywhere as Astatotilapia nubila - the name in this page's address - but that is not the name the catalogues use. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes carries the original description as Tilapia nubila Boulenger 1906, type locality Entebbe, Uganda, Lake Victoria, and gives the current status as 'Valid as Haplochromis nubilus (Boulenger 1906)'. FishBase files it there too; GBIF's backbone treats Astatotilapia nubila as a synonym of Haplochromis nubilus; and the World Register of Marine Species goes further, flagging the Astatotilapia combination as an incorrect subsequent spelling. Maidenhead Aquatics prints both names on the same page, which is the honest shop's answer. We head this entry with the catalogue name and keep the shelf name in the address bar, the synonym list and the search box - which is where you will actually type it. What the animal is: a small, dark, hard-working haplochromine from the shallow vegetated margins of the Lake Victoria system in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania - 9.3 cm standard length on FishBase, 11 cm as the trade quotes it. It arrives with the lake's history attached. Wikipedia's account of Lake Victoria records more than 500 haplochromine species, almost all endemic, and that 'it is estimated that at least 200 species (about 40 percent) of Lake Victoria haplochromines have become extinct' following the Nile perch introductions - first upstream of Murchison Falls in 1954, then into Victoria itself in 1962-63 - alongside eutrophication and other changes to the ecosystem. Others 'have become extinct in their pure form, but survive as hybrids between close relatives'. And 'Some of the threatened Lake Victoria cichlid species have captive "insurance" populations in zoos, public aquaria and among private aquarists'. So the status question matters, and the answer deserves stating precisely. iucnredlist.org will not answer an automated request - it returns a Cloudflare challenge - so we report the assessment from three secondary readings that agree with each other. FishBase gives 'Vulnerable (VU) (D2); Date assessed: 31 March 2010' and cites Red List Version 2025-2, so the category still stands in the current Red List. GBIF's Red List dataset returns VULNERABLE for the same IUCN taxon, 60340. Wikipedia carries the full assessment reference: Witte, de Zeeuw & Brooks 2010, e.T60340A12352997. Maidenhead gives the reasoning - the listing is 'due to the introduction of invasive predatory species, pollution, and hybridisation due to decreased water transparency (eutrophication and erosion leading to increased sedimentation and runoff ) which interferes with mate recognition cues.' That last clause is the one to carry into your tank. Turbid water stops a female telling one male from another in the lake; a mixed tank does the same thing on purpose. The same page is blunt about it: 'These fish tend to hybridise freely with many other closely related Victorian cichlids, so are best maintained in a species tank environment or alongside robust Lake Malawi mbuna, which have very similar requirements.' Our Pundamilia nyererei entry says the same thing about the same lake, and both mean it: one Victorian species per tank, one collection line, and fry that are worth something to the next keeper. The good news is the other half of that page: 'Hap Nubilus are bred on a commercial basis for the aquarium trade, and are thought to be widely distributed amongst hobbyists.' Nobody is taking this fish out of the lake for you, and keeping a line clean is a small contribution to exactly the insurance population Wikipedia describes.

Care

One male, four or more females, in a tank of at least 120 cm - Maidenhead Aquatics says 'The aquarium should be at least 4ft long', and we gate on the same 120 x 45 cm base and roughly 240 L as our Pundamilia nyererei entry. Fishipedia's sheet asks for 400 L, so treat 240 L as a floor rather than a target. The extra females are not decoration: 'keeping just one female with a male will result in continual harassment and death'. Maidenhead calls hard, alkaline water essential and gives pH 7.5-8.5 with hardness 'up to 25 degrees', which coral sand or aragonite will hold. Our hardness band starts lower than that sounds, because Fishipedia records the natural water at 3-6 dGH: pH matters more here than hardness does, and a moderately soft Lithuanian tap will not hurt this fish the way it would a Malawi mbuna. 24-26 °C. Build rockwork from the base upward with many crevices, and build it so it stays standing when the fish dig underneath it. This is one of the few big-cichlid layouts where rooted plants genuinely work: Maidenhead names Anubias and Vallisneria as doing well in exactly this water, which is why this entry is not flagged as a plant-wrecker. Efficient filtration, moderate flow, good oxygenation, regular partial water changes. Maternal mouthbrooder - the female carries for up to three weeks and eats nothing while she does. One warning about the data: FishBase's ecology line for this species prints 'pH range: 10.0 - 15.0', which no freshwater fish lives in. It is a data-entry slip, and our pH band comes from Maidenhead instead.

Diet

Omnivore taking insect larvae, small crustaceans and algae in the wild. In the tank: small meaty frozen foods - bloodworm, white mosquito larvae, vitamin-enriched brineshrimp, daphnia - plus flake and a small pellet. Little and often while a female is carrying.

Telling males from females

What works for this species, most reliable first.

• Extended finsStrong · from about 8 months, and later in a suppressed male

  On many cichlids and killifish the male's dorsal and anal fins draw out into trailing points as he matures, while the female's stay rounded.

• VentingA hint only · only on a mature fish, easiest when she is in breeding condition

  The method breeders use when the answer has to be right. Hold the fish upside down in a wet hand or soft net and look at the two openings ahead of the anal fin. The forward one is the anus; the one behind it is what you are reading.

• Adult sizeA hint only · only across animals of the same age

  In many cichlids, catfish and loaches one sex simply grows larger — usually the male, though there are well-known reversals.

Similar species

Same category and the closest water parameters — if this species isn't quite it, start here.

Sold in Lithuania

These Lithuanian shops listed this species in their public catalogue (checked August 8, 2026). Stock moves — ask before you travel.

These links are unpaid: we get nothing for them and ask for nothing.

Frequently asked questions

What tank size does a Blue Victoria Mouthbrooder need?

A Blue Victoria Mouthbrooder needs an aquarium of at least 240 litres (63.4 US gallons) with a footprint at least 120 cm (47.2 in) long — for this species, swimming length matters as much as raw volume.

What water parameters does a Blue Victoria Mouthbrooder need?

Blue Victoria Mouthbrooder does best at 22–28 °C (71.6–82.4 °F), pH 7–8.5 and a general hardness of 4–25 °dGH.

What group size does a Blue Victoria Mouthbrooder need?

Blue Victoria Mouthbrooder is a social species — keep a group of at least 5 so natural behaviour emerges and stress stays low.

Is the Blue Victoria Mouthbrooder suitable for beginners?

Blue Victoria Mouthbrooder sits in the middle of the difficulty scale — manageable for a careful beginner who has done the reading, but it has specific needs worth researching first.

Sources

• FishBase — Haplochromis nubilus (Boulenger, 1906), Blue Victoria mouthbrooder
• Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — species record for nubila, Tilapia Boulenger 1906
• Fishkeeper.co.uk (Maidenhead Aquatics) — Hap Nubilus, Haplochromis nubilus
• GBIF — Haplochromis nubilus (Boulenger, 1906): backbone record and Red List category
• Wikipedia — Haplochromis nubilus
• Wikipedia — Lake Victoria
• Fishipedia — Haplochromis nubilus