Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis azureus

Copadichromis azureus "Nkhomo Reef"

Nkhomo Reef — n-KOH-moh REEF (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 Copadichromis azureus account →

Specific to Nkhomo Reef

  • 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 Copadichromis azureus.

IUCNNEAR THREATENED · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.7 in14.6 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth33–108 ft10–33 m
DietUtaka zooplanktivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~30-60 eggs (utaka-typical; not documented for this species, by analogy to the open-water utaka C. chrysonotus, which averages ~49 eggs/brood per Smith 2000 & Weyl et al. 2005)
Sexual dimorphismYesDominant males turn brilliant azure-blue with a blue breast and yellow-edged anal fin; females and non-breeding males are plain beige-silver with three dark flank spots.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nkhomo Reef population

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

Colour reference: living Nkhomo Reef fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis azureus, the blue utaka or electric-blue Copadichromis, is a zooplankton-feeding cichlid endemic to the southern half of Lake Malawi. Females and juveniles wear the drab silvery-beige livery typical of the genus, marked with three dark spots along the flank, but a dominant male in breeding dress transforms into one of the most intensely coloured fish in the lake: a deep, metallic azure that gives the species both its epithet and its hobby fame. It belongs to the utaka, the open-water plankton-pickers of Malawi, yet it stays closer to the bottom than most of its relatives, hovering over the sand-and-rock interface where the males build and defend sand-bowl bowers.

Full Copadichromis azureus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis azureus "Nkhomo Reef"
  2. FishBase — Copadichromis azureus (Konings, 1990)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Copadichromis azureus (species record spid 60995)
  4. malawi.si — Copadichromis azureus 'Nkhomo Reef' (Stuart Grant / M.K. Oliver database)
  5. malawi.si — Copadichromis azureus species page (location variants)
  6. Stauffer, J.R. & A.F. Konings (2006) — Review of Copadichromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae), Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwat. 17(1):9-42 (FishBase main reference)