Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis sp. "Quadrimaculatus Yellow"

Copadichromis sp. "Quadrimaculatus Yellow" "Taiwanee Reef"

Taiwanee Reef — ty-WAHN-ee 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. "Quadrimaculatus Yellow" account →

Specific to Taiwanee 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. "Quadrimaculatus Yellow".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size8 in20 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth10–98 ft3–30 m
DietPresumed open-water zooplanktivore, picking copepods, cladocerans and insect larvae from the water column with a small protrusible mouth, per the quadrimaculatus group pattern; no population-specific dietary study has been published.
Breedingmaternal mouthbrooder (polygamous, lek-style)not documented for this form; utaka-typical ~30–60 eggs (mean ~49 in the open-water congener C. chrysonotus, Smith 2000)
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males develop a yellow cast to the fins, distinguishing this population from other quadrimaculatus-group forms; females and juveniles are presumed plain silvery with the group's characteristic four flank blotches, as in the type species.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Taiwanee Reef population

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

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

About the species

Copadichromis sp. "Quadrimaculatus Yellow" is an undescribed, yellow-finned utaka closely related to Copadichromis quadrimaculatus, the type species of the genus, collected at Taiwanee Reef in Lake Malawi. It belongs to the small cluster of colour forms travelling under provisional names within the "quadrimaculatus group" — populations similar enough to the four-blotched type species to be assigned to its immediate circle, but distinguished from it by fin colour, and never formally examined closely enough to be given a validated name.

Full Copadichromis sp. "Quadrimaculatus Yellow" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis sp. "Quadrimaculatus Yellow" "Taiwanee Reef"
  2. malawi.si — Copadichromis (Konings-based species database; Malawi genus overview)
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Copadichromis sp. 'quadrimaculatus yellow' (maternal mouthbrooder; Konings)
  4. Cichlid Room Companion — Copadichromis quadrimaculatus (type species; original description, taxonomy)
  5. Smith, L.W. 2000. The reproductive biology of an open-water spawning Lake Malawi cichlid, Copadichromis chrysonotus. African Zoology 35(2): 151-164 [mean fecundity ~49 eggs in an open-water utaka]