Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Lethrinops christyi

Lethrinops christyi "South East Arm"

South East Arm — SOWTH EEST ARM (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 christyi account →

Specific to South East Arm

  • 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 christyi.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7.2 in18.3 cm total length
Temperature75–79 °F24–26 °C
pH7.5–8.5alkaline
Depth—not recorded
DietSand-sifting benthic invertivore — strains small invertebrates (midge larvae, microcrustaceans) from mouthfuls of sand
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (inferred from genus/flock; not directly documented)Unrecorded; sand-dwelling haps of this size typically lay a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales larger and more colourful in breeding condition, as in Malaŵi haps generally; females and non-territorial males plainer/silvery.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The South East Arm population

Lethrinops christyi "South East Arm" is the South East Arm population of Lethrinops christyi, 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 christyi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living South East Arm fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Lethrinops christyi is a sand-sifting haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malaŵi, described by Ethelwynn Trewavas in 1931 from Monkey Bay in the south of the lake. Like the rest of its genus it makes a living by taking mouthfuls of sand and straining out small invertebrates, an adaptation written into its protrusible jaws and fine gill rakers. A modestly sized fish of around 18 cm, it belongs to the sediment-sifting Lethrinops radiation that is one of the lake's distinctive ecological guilds.

Full Lethrinops christyi account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Lethrinops christyi "South East Arm"
  2. FishBase — Lethrinops christyi Trewavas, 1931 (SpecCode 2156; size, distribution, habitat)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lethrinops christyi Trewavas, 1931 (valid name, authorship, type locality 'Monkey Bay')
  4. Trewavas, E., 1931 — A revision of the cichlid fishes of the genus Lethrinops and related forms of Lake Nyasa (original description of L. christyi)
  5. Oliver, M.K. et al. — A new species of deep-water Lethrinops (Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi (genus overview: sediment-sifting cichlids endemic to the Lake Malaŵi catchment)
  6. The ETYFish Project — Lethrinops (etymology of genus, and christyi after Cuthbert Christy)