Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Nyassachromis boadzulu

Nyassachromis boadzulu "Crocodile Rocks"

Crocodile Rocks — KROK-uh-dyl ROKS (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 Nyassachromis boadzulu account →

Specific to Crocodile Rocks

  • 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 Nyassachromis boadzulu.

IUCNENDANGERED · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6.7 in17 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth16–49 ft5–15 m
DietObligate zooplankton feeder
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder, lek-spawning sand bower-builder~30–50 fry per brood
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males are blue with vertical barring, a horizontal mid-lateral stripe, and a white-blue head blaze continued as a pale dorsal-fin margin; females and juveniles are silvery.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Crocodile Rocks population

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

Colour reference: living Crocodile Rocks fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Nyassachromis boadzulu is a slender, zooplankton-hunting haplochromine cichlid confined to a few sandy localities in the south-east arm of Lake Malawi. Males in breeding dress are unmistakable: a clean blue body crossed by vertical bars and anchored by a sharp horizontal stripe, the head blazed white-blue from snout to dorsal margin. What makes this fish genuinely unusual within its genus is its breeding system — males construct tall sand craters on the lake floor and defend them in communal leks, a strategy that places it closer to Copadichromis in behaviour than its slender, torpedo-shaped body might suggest. The species is rare, poorly known, and rated Endangered by the IUCN.

Full Nyassachromis boadzulu account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Nyassachromis boadzulu "Crocodile Rocks"
  2. FishBase — Nyassachromis boadzulu (Iles, 1960)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Nyassachromis boadzulu (species record)
  4. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae l–o): Nyassachromis etymology
  5. Eccles, D.H. & E. Trewavas, 1989 — Malawi Cichlids (British Museum Natural History) [genus Nyassachromis erected; N. boadzulu placed here]
  6. Konings, A. — Cichlids Yearbook vol. 2 (Cichlid Press, 1992): 'Copadichromis boadzulu (Iles, 1960)' by Peter Baasch