Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis sp. "Chitimba"

Copadichromis sp. "Chitimba" "Gallireya Reef"

Copadichromis sp. "Chitimba" (Gallireya Reef)

Gallireya Reef — gah-lee-REH-yah REEF (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 sp. "Chitimba" account →

Specific to Gallireya Reef

  • 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 sp. "Chitimba".

CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesCopadichromis quadrimaculatusdescribed as Haplochromis quadrimaculatus Regan 1922
Scientific size5 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth26–82 ft8–25 m
DietOpen-water zooplanktivore (utaka)
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this population; utaka-typical, likely a few dozen eggs per brood
Sexual dimorphismYesNot documented in detail for this form; genus-typical utaka dichromatism is expected, in which dominant males colour up for breeding while females remain plain and silvery.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Gallireya Reef population

Copadichromis sp. "Chitimba" "Gallireya Reef" is the Gallireya Reef population of Copadichromis sp. "Chitimba", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Copadichromis sp. "Chitimba", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Gallireya Reef fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis sp. "Chitimba" is an undescribed utaka documented from Gallireya Reef, in Youngs Bay on the northern Malawian shore of Lake Malawi — the same stretch of coast, close to Chitimba Bay, that gives the population its trade name. It has no formal scientific name. Unlike several other trade names in this genus, "Chitimba" carries no borrowed species epithet; it is a straightforward locality tag for one of the many named colour and geographic forms within the genus’s open-water, zooplankton-feeding utaka assemblage.

Full Copadichromis sp. "Chitimba" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis sp. "Chitimba" "Gallireya Reef"
  2. malawi.si — Copadichromis species and locality-form database (Konings-based; distribution, biotope)
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Copadichromis genus overview (Ad Konings, curator)
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority)
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