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

Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Mandalawi" "Mandalawi Reef"

Mandalawi Reef — mahn-dah-LAH-wee 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. "Virginalis Mandalawi" account →

Specific to Mandalawi 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. "Virginalis Mandalawi".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.5 in14 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth59–197 ft18–60 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.
Breedingmaternal mouthbrooder; presumed rock-associated bower builder per the virginalis patternnot documented; genus-typical for the virginalis-mloto group is ~30–60 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesNot documented for this population specifically. If typical of the wider virginalis-mloto complex, breeding males develop a dark body with a bright head-to-tail 'blaze'; females and non-breeders remain plain silvery and unspotted.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mandalawi Reef population

Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Mandalawi" "Mandalawi Reef" is the Mandalawi Reef population of Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Mandalawi", 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. "Virginalis Mandalawi", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

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

About the species

Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Mandalawi" is an undescribed Copadichromis population recorded at Mandalawi Reef in Lake Malawi, one of several locality-based colour races grouped loosely around the described species Copadichromis virginalis. Both Copadichromis virginalis and its close relative Copadichromis mloto are now understood, following 2022 genomic work, to be complexes of geographically separated populations rather than single uniform species, and "Virginalis Mandalawi" sits inside that unresolved diversity, documented by name and locality but not by any dedicated study.

Full Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Mandalawi" account →

Sources

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