Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis sp. "Mbenji Blue"

Copadichromis sp. "Mbenji Blue" "Fuawe Island"

Copadichromis sp. "Mbenji Blue" (Fuawe Island, Mbenji Island)

Fuawe Island — foo-AH-weh EYE-land (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. "Mbenji Blue" account →

Specific to Fuawe Island

  • 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. "Mbenji Blue".

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
Hardness (GH)up to 446 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth16–82 ft5–25 m
DietZooplanktivore, picking copepods and other small crustaceans from the open water column
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; utaka clutches generally larger than similarly sized mbuna
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males develop deep blue coloration; exact female pattern not documented in detail for this form, but expected plainer and more silvery as in related Copadichromis.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Fuawe Island population

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

Colour reference: living Fuawe Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis sp. "Mbenji Blue" is an undescribed open-water cichlid from west-central Lake Malawi, recorded at Fuawe Island and neighbouring Mbenji Island. It has no formal scientific name. The trade tag identifies it by the deep blue colour of breeding males and by Mbenji Island, a small island known among Malawi cichlid keepers for hosting several distinctive, tightly localised colour forms across multiple genera. It belongs to Copadichromis, the genus of schooling, plankton-feeding haplochromines known locally and in the trade as "utaka."

Full Copadichromis sp. "Mbenji Blue" account →

Sources

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