Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis jacksoni

Copadichromis jacksoni "Ngwasi"

Ngwasi — n-GWAH-see (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 Ngwasi

  • 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 Ngwasi population

Copadichromis jacksoni "Ngwasi" is the Ngwasi population of Copadichromis jacksoni, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern 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 Ngwasi 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 "Ngwasi"
  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)