Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Lethrinops lethrinus

Lethrinops lethrinus "Malopa"

Malopa — mah-LOH-pah (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 lethrinus account →

Specific to Malopa

  • 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 lethrinus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7.9 in20 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth0–66 ft0–20 m
DietSand-sifting benthic invertivore (chironomid larvae, copepods)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (lek-spawning; males defend open sand territories)not specifically documented for L. lethrinus; comparable shallow-water Lethrinops carry a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesFemales remain plain silver-grey year-round; breeding males develop blue-green iridescence on head and flanks with reddish-orange fin colouration. Males also attain larger maximum size.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Malopa population

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

Colour reference: living Malopa fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Lethrinops lethrinus is the fish that gave a genus its name — the type species on which Charles Tate Regan founded Lethrinops in 1922, and from which the entire assemblage of Malawi's sand-sifting cichlids takes its identity. Endemic to Lake Malawi, Lake Malombe, and the upper Shire River system, it inhabits shallow sandy and muddy areas near river outlets, where it forages for buried invertebrates by scooping mouthfuls of substrate and straining them through the gill rakers. Breeding males are among the more peaceable of the lake's haplochromines, often holding colour side by side while competing for females over open sandy leks.

Full Lethrinops lethrinus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Lethrinops lethrinus "Malopa"
  2. FishBase — Lethrinops lethrinus (Günther, 1894)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lethrinops lethrinus (species record)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lethrinops (genus record)
  5. GBIF — Lethrinops lethrinus (Günther, 1894)
  6. Turner, G.F., Crampton, D.A. & Genner, M.J. 2023. 'A new species of Lethrinops (Cichliformes: Cichlidae) from a Lake Malawi satellite lake, believed to be extinct in the wild.' bioRxiv preprint doi: 10.1101/2023.03.17.533142