Copadichromis borleyi "Maison Reef"
Maison Reef — mah-EE-sohn 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 borleyi account →Specific to Maison 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 borleyi.
The Maison Reef population
Copadichromis borleyi "Maison Reef" is the Maison Reef population of Copadichromis borleyi, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Copadichromis borleyi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Maison Reef fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Copadichromis borleyi is a zooplankton-feeding cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi and one of the most recognizable members of the lake's "utaka" guild — the open-water haplochromines that hover in shoals above the rocks and pick drifting copepods out of the current. Sold across the hobby as the "red fin" or "Kadango" hap, it pairs a vivid blue-faced, red- or yellow-flanked male with a flexible, suction-style feeding habit that ties it tightly to the lake's plankton. It is common, widespread, and listed as Least Concern, even as the basin it depends on comes under growing strain.
Full Copadichromis borleyi account →Sources
- malawi.si — Copadichromis borleyi "Maison Reef"
- Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Copadichromis borleyi
- FishBase — Copadichromis borleyi summary
- FishBase — Copadichromis borleyi reproduction summary
- GBIF — Copadichromis borleyi occurrences
- Iles, T.D. 1960. A group of zooplankton feeders of the genus Haplochromis (Cichlidae) in Lake Nyasa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (13)2:257–280