Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Labeotropheus fuelleborni

Labeotropheus fuelleborni "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 Labeotropheus fuelleborni 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 Labeotropheus fuelleborni.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.9 in15 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth3–26 ft1–8 m
DietScrapes aufwuchs (algae) from rock
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~20-60 eggs, scaling with female size
Sexual dimorphismYesMales brilliant blue (often barred, with orange anal-fin egg-spots); females blue-grey barred or an orange-blotch (OB)/marmalade morph mottled black, orange and white.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chiofu population

Labeotropheus fuelleborni "Chiofu" is the Chiofu population of Labeotropheus fuelleborni, 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 Labeotropheus fuelleborni, 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

Labeotropheus fuelleborni, the blue mbuna, is a rock-grazing cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi and one of the most instantly recognizable members of the lake's mbuna flock. Its fleshy, overhanging snout sits above a downturned mouth packed with chisel-shaped teeth — a purpose-built rasp for scraping the algal turf, or aufwuchs, off rocks. It is also a textbook case of explosive color variation: populations differ island to island, and females come in a barred blue-grey form and a patchwork orange-blotch (OB) morph, a polymorphism that has made the genus a favorite subject for evolutionary biologists.

Full Labeotropheus fuelleborni account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Labeotropheus fuelleborni "Chiofu"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Labeotropheus fuelleborni
  3. FishBase — Labeotropheus fuelleborni (Blue mbuna)
  4. FishBase — Reproduction summary, Labeotropheus fuelleborni
  5. USGS NAS — Blue mbuna (Labeotropheus fuelleborni) species profile
  6. Konings, A. — Cichlids Yearbook vol. 2 (Cichlid Press): Labeotropheus fuelleborni colour morphs, sympatry & localities (Katale, Mumbo, Mbenji)