Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis jacksoni

Copadichromis jacksoni "Masinje"

Masinje — mah-SEEN-jeh (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 Masinje

  • 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
Scientific size7.2 in18.3 cm total length
Temperature73–81 °F23–27 °C
pH7.4–8.4alkaline
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 Masinje population

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

Colour reference: living Masinje 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 "Masinje"
  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)