Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Fossorochromis rostratus

Fossorochromis rostratus "Chiofu"

Chiofu — chee-OH-foo (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 Fossorochromis rostratus account →

Specific to Chiofu

  • 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 Fossorochromis rostratus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size13.8 in35 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth0–59 ft0–18 m
DietSand-sifting invertivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~50–130 eggs (reported up to 200)
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males turn blackish-blue with turquoise, often erasing the blotches; females and non-dominant males stay silver with three rows of dark blotches, and subordinate males mimic female coloration.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chiofu population

Fossorochromis rostratus "Chiofu" is the Chiofu population of Fossorochromis rostratus, 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 Fossorochromis rostratus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Chiofu fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Fossorochromis rostratus is the bulldozer of Lake Malawi's sandy shallows: a large, silver-and-spotted haplochromine that feeds by ramming its pointed snout into the substrate, taking a mouthful of sand, and spitting out everything that isn't a midge larva. It is the only member of its genus, endemic to the lake and its outflow, and famous among divers and aquarists alike for a startling party trick — when a net or a predator closes in, it dives headfirst into the sand and vanishes. Hardy and common in the wild, it is nonetheless a fish that asks a great deal of the aquarist who wants to keep it well: room to swim, sand to dig, and tolerance for a male that can turn a six-foot tank into his private kingdom.

Full Fossorochromis rostratus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Fossorochromis rostratus "Chiofu"
  2. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Tilapia rostrata / Fossorochromis rostratus
  3. FishBase — Fossorochromis rostratus summary
  4. GBIF — Fossorochromis rostratus occurrence search
  5. ITIS — Fossorochromis rostratus (TSN 649019)
  6. Eccles & Trewavas (1989), Malawian cichlid fishes: classification of some haplochromine genera — cited in Catalog of Fishes (erection of genus Fossorochromis)