Diplotaxodon altus "South East Arm"
South East Arm — SOWTH EEST ARM (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 Diplotaxodon altus account →Specific to South East Arm
- 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 Diplotaxodon altus.
The South East Arm population
Diplotaxodon altus "South East Arm" is the South East Arm population of Diplotaxodon altus, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Diplotaxodon altus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living South East Arm fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Diplotaxodon altus is a silvery, open-water cichlid from Lake Malawi's offshore zooplankton-feeding radiation, a lineage of schooling haplochromines that live away from the rocky shallows most aquarists picture when they think of the lake. Its species name — Latin for "deep" or "tall" — most plausibly points to a comparatively deep body among the genus's typically slender, torpedo-shaped members. It is documented here from Chipoka on the western shore and from the lake's South East Arm, sites that bracket a good stretch of the southern basin.
Full Diplotaxodon altus account →Sources
- malawi.si — Diplotaxodon altus "South East Arm"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — online database (authority for valid fish names; genus Diplotaxodon, Trewavas 1935)
- Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; genus Diplotaxodon and the offshore/twilight-zone cichlid community)