Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Corematodus shiranus

Corematodus shiranus "Monkey Bay"

Monkey Bay — MUNK-ee BAY (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 Corematodus shiranus account →

Specific to Monkey Bay

  • 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 Corematodus shiranus.

IUCNCRITICALLY ENDANGERED · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size10.6 in27 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth—not recorded
DietLepidophage (scale-eater) — rasps scales from the caudal fins of shoaling Oreochromis tilapia via aggressive mimicry
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (inferred from the Malawi haplochromine pattern)Not reliably documented
Sexual dimorphismNot documentedBreeding coloration and sexual dimorphism are poorly documented for this rarely-collected fish; both sexes show the silvery, dark-barred tilapia-mimicking pattern.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Monkey Bay population

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

Colour reference: living Monkey Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Corematodus shiranus is a scale-eater that wins by looking like its lunch. Silvery and barred, it slips singly into the milling schools of the chambo tilapia (Oreochromis), drifts alongside a fish that takes it for one of its own, then darts in and rasps the scales off its tailfin with jaws packed full of fine, broom-like teeth. It is one of the most striking examples of aggressive mimicry among the Lake Malawi cichlids — and, in a grim twist, its fortunes are now chained to the very prey it deceives: as the chambo fishery has collapsed, this fish has gone from Least Concern to Critically Endangered.

Full Corematodus shiranus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Corematodus shiranus "Monkey Bay"
  2. FishBase — Corematodus shiranus (Boulenger, 1897)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Corematodus shiranus (species record; valid; type locality upper Shire River)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — genus Corematodus Boulenger, 1897
  5. malawicichlids.com (M. K. Oliver) — Corematodus shiranus: aggressive mimicry of Oreochromis squamipinnis and scale-eating (citing Fryer & Iles 1972)
  6. Konings, A. F., Wisor, J. & Stauffer, J. R. 2021 — Microcomputed tomography used to link head morphology and observed feeding behavior in cichlids of Lake Malaŵi (Ecology and Evolution 11(9):4605–4615)