Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis ilesi

Copadichromis ilesi "Gome"

Gome — GOH-meh (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 ilesi account →

Specific to Gome

  • 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 ilesi.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in11.4 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth23–98 ft7–30 m
DietOpen-water zooplanktivore (utaka)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder; male builds sand-walled nest under rocks~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 dimorphismYesBreeding males dark/black with a creamy-white-to-yellow head blaze; females and non-breeders plain silvery and spotless. Males have unicuspid teeth, females bi-/tricuspid.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Gome population

Copadichromis ilesi "Gome" is the Gome population of Copadichromis ilesi, 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 ilesi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Gome fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis ilesi is a maternally mouthbrooding cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, one of the lake's "utaka" — the open-water haplochromines that hover in shoals and pick drifting zooplankton out of the current. Described by Ad Konings in 1999 and named for the fishery biologist T.D. Iles, who first made scientific sense of the utaka guild, it is a rare and localized fish best known to hobbyists under the trade name "Virginalis Kajose." Breeding males turn dark with a creamy-to-yellow blaze on the head, and they excavate sand-walled nests under rocks in deep water, while plain silvery females brood the young in the shallows.

Full Copadichromis ilesi account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis ilesi "Gome"
  2. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Copadichromis ilesi (type locality, holotype MRAC 99-07-P-17)
  3. FishBase — Copadichromis ilesi summary
  4. IRMNG — Copadichromis ilesi Konings, 1999
  5. Konings, A. 1999. Descriptions of three new Copadichromis species (Labroidei; Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa. Tropical Fish Hobbyist 47(9):62–84 (original description; via FishBase Ref. 47113)
  6. GBIF — Copadichromis ilesi Konings, 1999 (backbone taxon 2373850)