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Petrotilapia chrysos is living along rocky coasts on depths between 5 and 30 metres where they mainly stay in the rocky parts but sometimes also in the intermediate zones from rocks to sand. They can be found along the eastern coast of the lake between Metangula in Mozambique up to the islands Chinyamwezi and Chinyankwazi in the southeastern arm of the lake. The variants of this species which are living in this large area were formerly described as Petrotilapia sp."gold", Petrotilapia sp."gold eastern" and Petrotilapia sp."nigra yellow dorsal" however nowadays these forms are supposed to be geographic variants of Petrotilapia chrysos. According to this there are existing several geographic color variants like this one which was found in the neighbourhood of Masinje. In the lake the males of these species can grow from 12 to 17 cm, depending on the site where they live. In the aquarium however they can grow a little taller because of a good feeding. The males can then grow to about 14 to 19 cm, females grow to about 10 to 14 cm. Petrotilapia chrysos can sometimes be pretty intolerant towards conspecifics and other inhabitants. You can best keep this species together with multiple females and other mbunas in a big aquarium with a lot of hiding places. In the lake they are mainly feeding themselves with algae which they find on the rocks. In the aquarium they are comfortable with any food. They take everything they get offered, like spirulina pellets, mysis, artemia, cyclops and shrimp-peas mix. Food rich of algae like spirulina pellets or flakes is very important to them so this should not be missing on their menu. 
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