Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Diplotaxodon limnothrissa

Diplotaxodon limnothrissa "Nkhata Bay"

Nkhata Bay — n-KAH-tah 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 Diplotaxodon limnothrissa account →

Specific to Nkhata 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 Diplotaxodon limnothrissa.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2019
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6.1 in15.4 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth0–722 ft0–220 m
DietPelagic feeder on small fish & zooplankton
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderVery low fecundity; typically only 1-2 large (~3 cm TL) young carried per brooding female
Sexual dimorphismYesSexes the same size with no body-shape dimorphism; ripe males develop a yellow-white blaze along the dorsal fin.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Nkhata Bay population

Diplotaxodon limnothrissa "Nkhata Bay" is the Nkhata Bay population of Diplotaxodon limnothrissa, 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 limnothrissa, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

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

About the species

Diplotaxodon limnothrissa is a slender, silvery haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, and one of the most abundant fish in the entire lake. Unlike the rock-dwelling mbuna that define the hobby's image of Malawi, it is a creature of open, deep water — a roving zooplankton-eater that ranges from the sunlit surface down past 200 m, often hanging over water too oxygen-poor for almost anything else. Its describer named it for the clupeid Limnothrissa miodon of Lake Tanganyika, because this cichlid fills the same pelagic, plankton-grazing niche that an anchovy-like fish occupies in the older rift lake. It matters far more to fishermen than to aquarists, and that is the most honest thing one can say about it.

Full Diplotaxodon limnothrissa account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Diplotaxodon limnothrissa "Nkhata Bay"
  2. Diplotaxodon limnothrissa — Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (CAS)
  3. Diplotaxodon limnothrissa summary — FishBase
  4. Diplotaxodon limnothrissa — Reproduction Summary (FishBase)
  5. Turner, G.F. (1994). Description of a commercially important pelagic species of the genus Diplotaxodon (Pisces: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa. J. Fish Biol. 44(5):799-807
  6. Allison et al. (1996). Diets and food consumption rates of pelagic fish in Lake Malawi, Africa. Freshwater Biology