Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Lethrinops gossei

Lethrinops gossei "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 gossei 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 gossei.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.7 in14.4 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth295–426 ft90–130 m
DietDeep-water sediment-sifting benthic invertivore (insect larvae and small invertebrates from muddy bottoms)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (inferred from genus; not documented for this species)not documented; sand-dwelling Lethrinops congeners typically carry only a few dozen eggs/fry
Sexual dimorphismNot documentedNot documented for this deep-water, trawl-caught species; Lethrinops are typically seasonally dimorphic, with colourful nuptial males and plain silvery females.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The South East Arm population

Lethrinops gossei "South East Arm" is the South East Arm population of Lethrinops gossei, 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 gossei, 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 gossei is a deep-water, sand- and mud-sifting haplochromine cichlid endemic to the southern reaches of Lake Malawi, described in 1973 by Warren Burgess and Herbert Axelrod and named for the Belgian ichthyologist Jean-Pierre Gosse. Unlike the shallow-shelf members of its genus, it lives well down the slope on soft bottoms at roughly 90 to 130 m, where it mines the sediment for buried invertebrates. It is one of the offshore Lethrinops more familiar from trawl catches than from the aquarium, and little is recorded of its life history beyond what the genus as a whole shares.

Full Lethrinops gossei account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Lethrinops gossei "South East Arm"
  2. FishBase — Lethrinops gossei Burgess & Axelrod, 1973
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lethrinops gossei (species record; authorship & status)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lethrinops (genus record)
  5. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae): Lethrinops gossei etymology (honouring J.-P. Gosse)
  6. GBIF — Lethrinops gossei Burgess & Axelrod, 1973