Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Champsochromis caeruleus

Champsochromis caeruleus "Nkhata Bay"

Nkhata Bay — n-KAH-tah BAY (approx.)

The fish

How this cichlid is built, and everything about how it lives, eats and breeds, is shared with the species — this page doesn't repeat it.

Read the full Champsochromis caeruleus account →

Specific to Nkhata Bay

  • Collection locality & coordinates
  • Local coloration — best judged from the living-fish photo
  • Kept as a single-provenance line, never crossed with other collection points

Care facts below are the species' — shared with Champsochromis caeruleus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size12.7 in32.2 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.5–8.6alkaline
Depth10–180 ft3–55 m
DietPursuit piscivore (open-water fish-hunter)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (sand-nesting)~30-35 eggs (small clutch, exceptionally large eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales grow much larger, turn metallic steel-blue with red-flecked scales and a reddish anal fin, and develop long trailing dorsal/anal/pelvic fin filaments; females stay plain silver with a dark oblique stripe.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nkhata Bay population

Champsochromis caeruleus "Nkhata Bay" is the Nkhata Bay population of Champsochromis caeruleus, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Champsochromis caeruleus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Nkhata Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Champsochromis caeruleus, the "Malawi trout," is one of Lake Malawi's largest and fastest open-water predators — a long, fusiform haplochromine that runs down shoals of the lake's anchovy-like sardine in mid-water like a freshwater pike. Drab and silvery as a juvenile, a dominant male turns a metallic steel-blue with red-tinged scales and trailing fin filaments. Despite its size and the sardine in its diet, it is a maternal mouthbrooder that spawns over the sand, and the IUCN rates it Least Concern across a lake that is itself under mounting strain.

Full Champsochromis caeruleus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Champsochromis caeruleus "Nkhata Bay"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Champsochromis caeruleus (orig. Paratilapia caerulea Boulenger 1908; holotype BMNH 1908.10.27.60)
  3. FishBase — Champsochromis caeruleus summary
  4. GBIF — Champsochromis caeruleus (Boulenger, 1908) occurrence & taxonomy
  5. Konings, A. (2007) — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 4th ed., Cichlid Press (diet & breeding observations, incl. Konings 1995c)
  6. Boulenger, G. A. (1908) — Diagnoses of new fishes discovered by Capt. E. L. Rhoades in Lake Nyassa. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (8) 2(9):238-243 (original description, p. 240) — CoF reference 575