Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete"

Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete" "Malopa"

Malopa — mah-LOH-pah (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 Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete" account →

Specific to Malopa

  • 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 Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3 in8 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth10–49 ft3–15 m
DietZooplanktivore — picks individual zooplankton items from the open water column above reef, unlike most rock-scraping mbuna
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; genus-typical, roughly 10–20 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales typically blue with dark barring/striping; females paler and less contrastingly marked. Specific pattern not documented for this form.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Malopa population

Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete" "Malopa" is the Malopa population of Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Malopa fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete" is an undescribed dwarf mbuna recorded from a tight cluster of sites straddling the Malawi–Mozambique border in the southern lake, including the reef of Ntekete that gives the form its name. Cynotilapia is the genus of small, schooling mbuna that feed largely on zooplankton picked from open water above the reef rather than scraping algae directly from rock — an ecological departure from most of their mbuna relatives. It has no describing author, FishBase record, or IUCN status.

Full Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Cynotilapia sp. "Lion Ntekete" "Malopa"
  2. malawi.si — Cynotilapia species database
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Cynotilapia genus profile
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)
  5. Li, W., Konings, A. & Stauffer, J.R. Jr. (2016) — Taxonomic revision of the genus Cynotilapia (Teleostei: Cichlidae), Zootaxa 4168