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

Copadichromis sp. "Taiwan 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. "Taiwan 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. "Taiwan Yellow".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6 in15 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 similar small invertebrates from the water column with a small protrusible mouth, per genus 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-toned colouration, per the trade name; females and non-breeders presumed plain silvery, per genus pattern. No detailed description published.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Taiwanee Reef population

Copadichromis sp. "Taiwan Yellow" "Taiwanee Reef" is the Taiwanee Reef population of Copadichromis sp. "Taiwan 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. "Taiwan 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. "Taiwan Yellow" is an undescribed, yellow-toned Copadichromis population collected at Taiwanee Reef in Lake Malawi, named simply for its collection reef rather than for any resolved relationship to a described species. Taiwanee Reef is a documented collection point for more than one yellow-finned Copadichromis colour form, including the separately traded Copadichromis sp. "Quadrimaculatus Yellow"; whether "Taiwan Yellow" represents the same population under a different trade tag, a related but distinct form, or something else entirely has not been settled in the published literature, and this account treats it as its own open-nomenclature entity rather than assuming an unconfirmed identity.

Full Copadichromis sp. "Taiwan Yellow" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis sp. "Taiwan Yellow" "Taiwanee Reef"
  2. malawi.si — Copadichromis (Konings-based species database; Malawi genus overview)
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Copadichromis genus profile (utaka, plankton-feeders)
  4. 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]