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

Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Namalenje" "Namalenje Island"

Namalenje Island — nah-mah-LEHN-jeh EYE-land (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 Namalenje" account →

Specific to Namalenje Island

  • 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 Namalenje".

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 Namalenje Island population

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

Colour reference: living Namalenje Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Namalenje" is an undescribed Copadichromis population recorded at Namalenje Island in southern Lake Malawi, one of several locality-based colour races grouped loosely around the described species Copadichromis virginalis. Following 2022 genomic work that finally separated true C. virginalis from its long-confused relative Copadichromis mloto, both species are now understood to be complexes of geographically separated populations rather than single uniform species, and "Virginalis Namalenje" sits inside that unresolved diversity, documented by name and locality but not by any dedicated study.

Full Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Namalenje" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Copadichromis sp. "Virginalis Namalenje" "Namalenje Island"
  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)