Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis cyaneus

Copadichromis cyaneus "Mitande Reef (Rocks)"

Mitande Reef (Rocks) — mee-TAHN-deh REEF ROKS (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 cyaneus account →

Specific to Mitande Reef (Rocks)

  • 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 cyaneus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7.5 in19 cm total length
Temperature73–81 °F23–27 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth0–98 ft0–30 m
DietOpen-water zooplankton picker
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderNot documented; genus-typical (a few dozen eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesStrongly dichromatic: breeding males intense metallic blue with a light-blue head blaze and a narrow orange-yellow margin on the anal fin; females, juveniles and subordinate males plain silvery-grey
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mitande Reef (Rocks) population

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

Colour reference: living Mitande Reef (Rocks) fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis cyaneus is a zooplankton-eating cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, one of the lake's many "utaka" — the shoaling, open-water haplochromines that hover above the rocks picking drifting copepods from the current. Its name simply means "blue," for the electric cobalt that floods a dominant male, and most hobbyists know it by a single collecting locality, the Zimbabwe Rock form near Likoma Island. It is widespread and listed as Least Concern, yet it lives in exactly the guild that subsistence netting targets, in a lake under mounting strain.

Full Copadichromis cyaneus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis cyaneus "Mitande Reef (Rocks)"
  2. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Copadichromis cyaneus
  3. FishBase — Copadichromis cyaneus summary
  4. FishBase — Copadichromis cyaneus field guide
  5. GBIF — Copadichromis cyaneus occurrences
  6. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae) etymology, Copadichromis cyaneus