Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis parvus

Copadichromis parvus "Meluluca"

Meluluca — meh-loo-LOO-cah (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 parvus account →

Specific to Meluluca

  • 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 parvus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.8 in9.6 cm standard length
Temperature72–79 °F22–26 °C
pH7.5–8.5alkaline
Depth36–75 ft11–23 m
DietUtaka zooplanktivore (open-water plankton + benthic invertebrates)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderNot counted for C. parvus; genus-typical ~20-40 eggs expected for so small (~9-10 cm) an utaka (cf. ca. 60 eggs in the larger C. borleyi, FishBase Ref. 2060)
Sexual dimorphismYesNuptial males are dark blue to nearly black with a white head-and-dorsal stripe and 7-8 dark flank bars; females and non-territorial males are grey-brown with three dark flank blotches.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Meluluca population

Copadichromis parvus "Meluluca" is the Meluluca population of Copadichromis parvus, a geographic colour form from the Mozambique coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Copadichromis parvus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Meluluca fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis parvus is one of the smallest of Lake Malawi's utaka — the shoaling, plankton-feeding cichlids netted in open water by the lake's fishermen. Endemic to the lake's Mozambican shore between the Chiloelo River and the bay north of Metangula, it is a fish of the sand-and-rock intermediate zone, where territorial males in dark-blue nuptial dress excavate shallow bowers under and against small rocks to spawn. Its name, the Latin parvus ('small'), marks it out as a dwarf even within a genus of modest fishes.

Full Copadichromis parvus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis parvus "Meluluca"
  2. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Copadichromis parvus (species record)
  3. FishBase — Copadichromis parvus summary
  4. Stauffer, J.R. & Konings, A. 2006. Review of Copadichromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae) with the description of a new genus and six new species
  5. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae a-g): Copadichromis & parvus etymology
  6. malawi.si (M.K. Oliver / Stuart Grant database) — Copadichromis parvus 'Metangula'