Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis chizumuluensis

Copadichromis chizumuluensis "Chizumulu Island"

Chizumulu Island — chee-zoo-MOO-loo EYE-land (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 chizumuluensis account →

Specific to Chizumulu Island

  • 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 chizumuluensis.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.2 in10.6 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth39–66 ft12–20 m
DietUtaka zooplanktivore (also benthic invertebrates)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder; bower-buildingsmall (a few dozen eggs); not formally published
Sexual dimorphismYesFemales silvery grey; breeding males dark with a blue breast, narrow yellow marginal band and pale spots in the anal fin, and grow larger.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chizumulu Island population

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

Colour reference: living Chizumulu Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis chizumuluensis is a small, open-water utaka cichlid endemic to a single rocky island in Lake Malawi. Like the rest of its genus it makes a living straining zooplankton from the water column, but it does so within an area of just a few square kilometres off Chizumulu Island, where breeding males build sand bowers at the interface of sand and rock and don a blue-breasted nuptial dress. Known in the hobby for years only as 'Copadichromis sp. chizumulu blue', it was formally named in 2006 in Stauffer and Konings' revision of the genus.

Full Copadichromis chizumuluensis account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis chizumuluensis "Chizumulu Island"
  2. FishBase — Copadichromis chizumuluensis
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Copadichromis chizumuluensis (species record spid 69091)
  4. Stauffer, J.R. & Konings, A.F. 2006. Review of Copadichromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae) with the description of a new genus and six new species. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 17(1): 9-42.
  5. GBIF — Copadichromis chizumuluensis Stauffer & Konings, 2006
  6. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — references: Stauffer & Konings 2006 (ref id 28633)