Iodotropheus sp. "Londo" "Londo Bay"

Londo BayLOHN-doh 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 Iodotropheus sp. "Londo" account →

Specific to Londo 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 Iodotropheus sp. "Londo".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.5 in9 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth10–131 ft3–40 m
DietAufwuchs grazer with an omnivorous lean (genus-typical; algae, diatoms, insect larvae and small crustaceans)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (presumed, genus-typical)Not documented for this form; genus-typical broods (I. sprengerae) run roughly 5-60 fry
Sexual dimorphismMinimalNot documented for this form; described congeners show rusty-to-lavender or purple-brown male colour, but which pattern, if either, applies here has not been published.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Londo Bay population

Iodotropheus sp. "Londo" "Londo Bay" is the Londo Bay population of Iodotropheus sp. "Londo", a geographic colour form from the Mozambique coast of Lake Malawi in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Iodotropheus sp. "Londo", distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Londo Bay fish at malawi.si

About the species

Iodotropheus sp. "Londo" is an undescribed rock-dwelling cichlid recorded at Londo Bay on the Mozambican shore of Lake Malawi. It belongs to a genus best known for its widely kept sole aquarium representative, Iodotropheus sprengerae, the "rusty cichlid," but Iodotropheus in the wild is not the single-species genus the hobby often assumes: a second species, Iodotropheus stuartgranti, was later split from the sprengerae complex, and this Londo Bay population sits outside the tightly documented range of both — a genuinely separate, unresolved piece of the genus's story.

Full Iodotropheus sp. "Londo" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Iodotropheus sp. "Londo" "Londo Bay"
  2. malawi.si — Iodotropheus species and locality database
  3. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; Iodotropheus biology and locality forms)