Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Lethrinops auritus

Lethrinops auritus "Otter Point"

Otter Point — OT-ter POYNT (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 Lethrinops auritus account →

Specific to Otter Point

  • 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 Lethrinops auritus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.5 in14 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth0–16 ft0–5 m
DietSand-sifting benthic invertivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder; lek-spawning at male-built bowers~20–60 eggs (genus-typical for small Lake Malawi haplochromines; no species-specific count published — FLAGGED)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales larger and develop iridescent blue-yellow breeding coloration with a prominent blackish opercular spot; females and non-breeding males are cryptic silver-grey with faint vertical barring.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Otter Point population

Lethrinops auritus "Otter Point" is the Otter Point population of Lethrinops auritus, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Lethrinops auritus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Otter Point fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Lethrinops auritus, the golden sand-eater, is a small, large-eyed haplochromine cichlid endemic to the shallow sandy and muddy margins of Lake Malawi, where it feeds by sifting invertebrates from soft sediment. It is best known to field observers for the extraordinary spawning structures its males construct: rings of multiple mud cones arranged around a central pit dug into the lake bed, a miniature architecture that has made this modest fish a reference species in the study of bower-building behaviour across the Malawi flock. Widespread in the southern basin and documented at scattered northern localities, it remains Least Concern — yet it is acutely vulnerable to the beach-seine fishery that targets exactly the shallow sandy bays it calls home.

Full Lethrinops auritus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Lethrinops auritus "Otter Point"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lethrinops auritus (Regan 1922), species record (updated 19 May 2026)
  3. FishBase — Lethrinops auritus, Golden sand-eater (FishBase ID 2168)
  4. ETYFish Project — Family CICHLIDAE: Subfamily PSEUDOCRENILABRINAE (l–o), Lethrinops auritus etymology
  5. Regan, C.T. 1922 — 'The Cichlid Fishes of Lake Nyassa,' Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1921 (pt 4) no. 36: 675–727 [original description, p. 699]
  6. Konings, A. 2016 — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 5th edition. Cichlid Press (cited in Catalog of Fishes and IUCN for bower documentation and depth notes)