Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis sp. "Tumbi Two Spot"

Copadichromis sp. "Tumbi Two Spot" "Tumbi Point"

Tumbi Point — TOOM-bee POYNT (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. "Tumbi Two Spot" account →

Specific to Tumbi Point

  • 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. "Tumbi Two Spot".

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 dimorphismYesNot documented in detail. The trade name indicates a two-blotch flank pattern; breeding males across the genus typically develop saturated colour while females remain plain silvery. No specific pattern published for this population.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Tumbi Point population

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

Colour reference: living Tumbi Point fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis sp. "Tumbi Two Spot" is an undescribed Copadichromis population recorded at Tumbi Point on the Mozambican shore of Lake Malawi, named for a flank pattern of two dark blotches rather than the four-blotch row that gives the genus's type species, Copadichromis quadrimaculatus, its name. No formal description or dedicated field study of this population has been published, so its relationship to the quadrimaculatus group and other flank-blotched Copadichromis remains undetermined.

Full Copadichromis sp. "Tumbi Two Spot" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis sp. "Tumbi Two Spot" "Tumbi Point"
  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]