Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Coptodon rendalli

Coptodon rendalli "Ndonga"

Ndonga — n-DOHN-gah (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 Coptodon rendalli account →

Specific to Ndonga

  • 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 Coptodon rendalli.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size17.7 in45 cm total length
Temperature68–86 °F20–30 °C
pH6.5–8.5alkaline
Depth10–26 ft3–8 m
DietMacrophyte-feeding herbivore (plants, some detritus/invertebrates)
BreedingBiparental substrate spawner (nest pit)A prolific substrate spawner — clutches of roughly several hundred to a few thousand eggs (FishBase fecundity for the genus)
Sexual dimorphismYesSexes look very similar; males usually grow larger. Breeding fish develop the bright red-orange throat and belly
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Ndonga population

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

Colour reference: living Ndonga fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Coptodon rendalli, the redbreast tilapia, is a big, deep-bodied, plant-eating cichlid that ranges across much of sub-Saharan Africa and is one of the handful of true tilapiines native to Lake Malawi. Unlike the lake's famous mouthbrooding haplochromines, it is a substrate spawner that lays its eggs in an excavated pit — and in Malawi, remarkably, it digs branching tunnel systems and raises its young communally, a behavior interpreted as a defense against the lake's dense predator guild. Hardy, fast-growing, and valued as food and for weed control, it is also one of the most widely introduced fishes on the continent.

Full Coptodon rendalli account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Coptodon rendalli "Ndonga"
  2. Coptodon rendalli (Redbreast tilapia) — FishBase species summary
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Coptodon rendalli (Boulenger, 1897)
  4. Tilapia rendalli (redbreast tilapia) — USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species profile
  5. Ribbink, Marsh & Marsh (1981), Nest-building and communal care of young by Tilapia rendalli in Lake Malawi, Env. Biol. Fishes 6(2):219–222
  6. Dunz & Schliewen (2013), Molecular phylogeny and revised classification of the haplotilapiine cichlids formerly referred to as 'Tilapia', Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 68:64–80