Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis sp. "Mloto Undu"

Copadichromis sp. "Mloto Undu" "Undu Reef"

Undu Reef — OON-doo 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. "Mloto Undu" account →

Specific to Undu 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. "Mloto Undu".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth33–131 ft10–40 m
DietPresumed open-water zooplanktivore, picking copepods and other microcrustaceans from the water column, per genus and complex pattern; no population-specific dietary study has been published.
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented; genus-typical for the mloto-virginalis group is a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesNot documented for this population specifically. If typical of the wider Copadichromis mloto complex, breeding males turn dark blue-black with a metallic blue head and nape; females and non-breeders remain plain silvery.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Undu Reef population

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

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

About the species

Copadichromis sp. "Mloto Undu" is an undescribed utaka collected at Undu Reef on the Tanzanian shore of northern Lake Malawi, traded under a locality tag built on the name of Copadichromis mloto — a species whose own identity was confused for more than sixty years before whole-genome work finally pinned it down in the 2020s. Whether the Undu Reef population is true C. mloto or one of the several distinct, still-unnamed relatives that circulate under similar "mloto"-prefixed trade names has not been resolved, and it is documented mainly by name rather than by any dedicated study.

Full Copadichromis sp. "Mloto Undu" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis sp. "Mloto Undu" "Undu Reef"
  2. malawi.si — Copadichromis (Konings-based species database; Malawi genus overview)
  3. Turner et al. 2023 — Taxonomic investigation of the zooplanktivorous Lake Malawi cichlids Copadichromis mloto (Iles) and C. virginalis (Iles), Hydrobiologia
  4. Sawasawa et al. 2024 — Population genomic analysis reveals cryptic diversity in the heavily fished utaka Copadichromis mloto (bioRxiv preprint)
  5. Cichlid Room Companion — Copadichromis genus profile (utaka, plankton-feeders)