Copadichromis sp. "Kawanga" "Makonde"
Makonde — mah-KOHN-deh (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. "Kawanga" account →Specific to Makonde
- 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. "Kawanga".
The Makonde population
Copadichromis sp. "Kawanga" "Makonde" is the Makonde population of Copadichromis sp. "Kawanga", 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 sp. "Kawanga", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Makonde fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Copadichromis sp. "Kawanga" is an undescribed Lake Malawi Utaka, one of the open-water, plankton-feeding haplochromines that shoal above the lake floor in large numbers. It takes its name from Kawanga, a small village on the Malawian shore north of Nkhata Bay near where it was first collected, and was known for years by the informal name "Kawanga Borleyi" before Ad Konings reassigned it from Otopharynx to Copadichromis on the strength of its schooling, plankton-feeding behaviour. It ranges widely along the northern reaches of the lake on both the Malawian and Tanzanian shores. As an undescribed form it carries no authority, no publication year, no FishBase number, and no IUCN assessment.
Full Copadichromis sp. "Kawanga" account →