Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Gold"

Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Gold" "Nkanda"

Nkanda — n-KAHN-dah (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. "Virginalis Gold" account →

Specific to Nkanda

  • 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. "Virginalis Gold".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4 in10 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth118–164 ft36–50 m
DietPresumed open-water zooplanktivore, picking copepods and other microcrustaceans from the water column, per genus pattern; no population-specific dietary study has been published for this deep-water form.
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented; genus-typical for small Copadichromis is a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesRipe males are dark brown to black with a golden-yellow band from snout to tail along the dorsal surface, black bars when excited, and 5–7 egg-spots on a very dark anal fin. Females are plain silvery, unspotted, and grow almost as large as males owing to a fuller body shape.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nkanda population

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

Colour reference: living Nkanda fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Gold" is an undescribed utaka known only from a single deep-water site at Nkanda, on the Tanzanian shore at the extreme northern end of Lake Malawi. It is one of several look-alike populations grouped loosely around Copadichromis virginalis, distinguished from its better-known southern counterpart by a smaller adult size, a much deeper preferred depth, and a striking golden band that runs the length of a breeding male's back over an otherwise near-black body. First collected alive for the hobby in the mid-1990s, it remains a specialist's fish, traded in small numbers and understood mostly through Ad Konings' field notes rather than any formal study.

Full Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Gold" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Gold" "Nkanda"
  2. malawi.si — Copadichromis (Konings-based species database; Malawi genus overview)
  3. Konings, A. — Cichlids Yearbook, Volume 6 (Cichlid Press; Copadichromis sp. "virginalis gold", Nkanda)
  4. Turner, Crampton, Rusuwa, Hooft van Huysduynen & Svardal (2022) — Taxonomic investigation of the zooplanktivorous Lake Malawi cichlids Copadichromis mloto and C. virginalis (Hydrobiologia)
  5. Cichlid Room Companion — Copadichromis genus profile (utaka, plankton-feeders)