This fish has been known in the aquarium hobby for a number of years but remains undescribed to science despite the confusing trade name which has resulted in it often being referred to incorrectly as ‘Aulonocara walteri’.

It’s known only from Chizumulu Island and Likoma Island in Lake Malawi, both located off the eastern shoreline of the central part of the lake (Mozambique). There is a similar-looking, potentially conspecific, fish which can be found between the coastal settlements of Meponda (Mozambique) and Ntekete (Malawi) further south, and has been referred to A. sp. ‘trematocranus masinje’.