Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis jacksoni

Copadichromis jacksoni "Chiwi Rocks"Jackson's utaka

Copadichromis jacksoni (Chiwi Rocks, Higga Reef, Isanga-Lukuyusi, Masinje, Mbamba Islands, Ngwasi)

Chiwi Rocks — CHEE-wee 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 jacksoni account →

Specific to Chiwi 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 jacksoni.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesCopadichromis quadrimaculatusdescribed as Haplochromis quadrimaculatus Regan 1922
Scientific size7 in18.3 cm total length
Temperature73–81 °F23–27 °C
pH7.4–8.4alkaline
Hardness (GH)125–536 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth23–98 ft7–30 m
DietZooplanktivore (utaka plankton picker)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (harem, lek-like)~20-60 fry (malawi.si)
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males dark metallic blue with a clean white head/nape blaze, blue dorsal and anal fins and some yellow in the anal fin; females silvery-grey with a pair of distinct dark flank blotches.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chiwi Rocks population

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

Colour reference: living Chiwi Rocks fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis jacksoni is a zooplankton-feeding cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi and a member of the lake's "utaka" guild — the shoaling, open-water haplochromines that hover above rocky shores and pick drifting prey from the current. A dark-blue male carrying a clean white blaze across the head and nape makes the species recognizable, but it is one of the lake's quieter utaka: tied to deeper, sheltered, sediment-dusted rocky bays, rarely exported, and only lightly represented in the hobby. It is distributed lake-wide and listed as Least Concern.

Full Copadichromis jacksoni account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis jacksoni "Chiwi Rocks"
  2. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Copadichromis jacksoni
  3. FishBase — Copadichromis jacksoni summary
  4. 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
  5. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press), the standard field reference for the utaka and Copadichromis
  6. malawi.si — Copadichromis jacksoni (genus index: locality variants & type locality)
  7. IUCN Red List — Copadichromis jacksoni "Chiwi Rocks"
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