Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Nyassachromis leuciscus

Nyassachromis leuciscus "Thumbi West Island"

Thumbi West Island — TOOM-bee WEST EYE-land (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 leuciscus account →

Specific to Thumbi West Island

  • 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 leuciscus.

IUCNDATA DEFICIENT · 2018
DDnot on the EX–LC scale
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6.3 in16 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth33 ft10 m
DietPicks small soft invertebrates from the silty sand surface, plus planktonic and benthic algae (FishBase; trophic level ~2.5)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder; male builds and defends a sand nest (inferred from genus)Unrecorded for this species
Sexual dimorphismYesGenus-typical: breeding males coloured (greenish/blue) and larger, females and juveniles silvery; not studied in detail for this species.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Thumbi West Island population

Nyassachromis leuciscus "Thumbi West Island" is the Thumbi West Island population of Nyassachromis leuciscus, 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 leuciscus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Thumbi West Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Nyassachromis leuciscus, sometimes called the small green utaka, is a slender sand-dwelling cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi. Charles Tate Regan described it in 1922, naming it for the silvery, chub-like look of the specimens he examined; living adults are in fact greenish to blue. It is a fish of shallow sandy bottoms, where it feeds by sifting the fine silty surface layer for small soft invertebrates and algae. Poorly documented and rarely seen, it is currently listed as Data Deficient by the IUCN.

Full Nyassachromis leuciscus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Nyassachromis leuciscus "Thumbi West Island"
  2. FishBase — Nyassachromis leuciscus (Regan, 1922), 'Small green utaka'
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Nyassachromis leuciscus (species record; type data, valid name)
  4. Regan, C. T., 1922 — The cichlid fishes of Lake Nyassa. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1921: 675–727 (original description, Haplochromis leuciscus)
  5. Eccles, D. H. & E. Trewavas, 1989 — Malawian Cichlid Fishes: a classification of some Haplochromine genera (Nyassachromis erected; leuciscus placed here)
  6. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae l–o): Nyassachromis leuciscus etymology (Greek leukiskos, 'chub')