Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis mloto

Copadichromis mloto "Nkhata Bay"

Nkhata Bay — n-KAH-tah BAY (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 mloto account →

Specific to Nkhata Bay

  • 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 mloto.

IUCNDATA DEFICIENT · 2018
DDnot on the EX–LC scale
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.3 in13.5 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth59–374 ft18–114 m
DietOpen-water zooplankton picker
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderGenus-typical for utaka; not documented for this species (likely a few dozen eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males turn dark blue-black with a brilliant metallic-blue head and nape (some forms with a red dorsal-fin band); females and juveniles stay drab grey-beige with a yellowish-brown wash.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nkhata Bay population

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

Colour reference: living Nkhata Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis mloto is a slender, silvery zooplankton-feeding cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, one of the "utaka" that hang in open water and pick copepods from the column with a fast, telescoping mouth. It is one of the great puzzles of the lake's flock: described by T. D. Iles in 1960 from Nkhata Bay and then effectively lost to science, the name went almost six decades without a confidently identified specimen. A 2023 genomic study finally pinned it down, showing that the fish trawlers and fishermen had long been calling Copadichromis virginalis is, for the most part, Copadichromis mloto. That fishery hold over it is also its problem: this is the "true utaka" most heavily netted on the lake, and its numbers have fallen.

Full Copadichromis mloto account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis mloto "Nkhata Bay"
  2. Copadichromis mloto — FishBase species summary
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Copadichromis mloto (species record)
  4. Turner et al. 2023 — Taxonomic investigation of the zooplanktivorous Lake Malawi cichlids Copadichromis mloto (Iles) and C. virginalis (Iles), Hydrobiologia
  5. Sawasawa et al. 2024 — Population genomic analysis reveals cryptic diversity in the heavily fished utaka Copadichromis mloto (bioRxiv preprint)
  6. Konings, Ad — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Copadichromis / 'Fire-Crest Mloto' account)