Diplotaxodon greenwoodi "Chizumulu Island"
Diplotaxodon greenwoodi (Chizumulu Island, Mbamba Bay)
Chizumulu Island — chee-zoo-MOO-loo EYE-land (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 greenwoodi account →Specific to Chizumulu Island
- 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 greenwoodi.
The Chizumulu Island population
Diplotaxodon greenwoodi "Chizumulu Island" is the Chizumulu Island population of Diplotaxodon greenwoodi, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Diplotaxodon greenwoodi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Chizumulu Island fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Diplotaxodon greenwoodi is the largest member of a genus of deep-water haplochromine cichlids found only in Lake Malawi, the kind of fish almost no aquarist will ever see alive. A heavy-bodied, silver predator with a small eye and a steeply upturned, almost shark-like gape, it patrols the dim shelf and reef zones tens of meters down. Described in 1986 as a 'paedophage' thought to steal fry from brooding females, it is now read more simply as a piscivore that swallows juvenile cichlids whole.
Full Diplotaxodon greenwoodi account →Sources
- malawi.si — Diplotaxodon greenwoodi "Chizumulu Island"
- Diplotaxodon greenwoodi — FishBase species summary
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Diplotaxodon greenwoodi (species record)
- Stauffer & McKaye 1986 — Description of a paedophagous deep-water cichlid from Lake Malawi (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 99:29–33)
- Stauffer, Phiri & Konings 2018 — Description of two deep-water fishes of the genus Diplotaxodon (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 131:90–100)
- Turner et al. 2004 — Identification and biology of Diplotaxodon, Rhamphochromis and Pallidochromis (Cichlid Press / Bangor research record)
- IUCN Red List — Diplotaxodon greenwoodi "Chizumulu Island"