Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Cyprichromis leptosoma

Cyprichromis leptosoma "Molwe"

Molwe — MOH-lweh (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 Cyprichromis leptosoma account →

Specific to Molwe

  • 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 Cyprichromis leptosoma.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.9 in10 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH7.8–9alkaline
Depth16–98 ft5–30 m
DietZooplanktivore; picks small crustaceans and other zooplankton from the water column using a highly protrusible mouth; will also take small shelled prey
Breedingopen-water maternal mouthbrooder9–20 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales develop vivid blues and yellows with bright pelvic-fin and tail markings (often polychromatic within a population); females are plain silvery-brown
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Molwe population

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

Colour reference: living Molwe fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Cyprichromis leptosoma is a slender, schooling cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, one of the so-called "sardine cichlids" that abandoned the rift lake's rocky bottom for the open water just above it. It is a maternal mouthbrooder that spawns mid-column rather than on a surface: a female releases an egg into open water, catches it in her mouth, and incubates the brood there for roughly three weeks. Males hold three-dimensional territories in the water column and display in glowing blues and yellows, while drab females shoal in their thousands above the reef.

Full Cyprichromis leptosoma account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Cyprichromis leptosoma "Molwe"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (Fricke, Eschmeyer & Van der Laan, eds.) — California Academy of Sciences
  3. FishBase — Cyprichromis leptosoma (Boulenger, 1898)
  4. Brandstätter, Salzburger & Sturmbauer (2005) — Mitochondrial phylogeny of the Cyprichromini, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34:382-391
  5. Anderson et al. (2016) — Same school, different conduct: rates of multiple paternity in Cyprichromis spp., Ecology and Evolution 6:37-45