Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Nyassachromis prostoma

Nyassachromis prostoma "Kanchedza Island"

Kanchedza Island — kahn-CHEH-dzah 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 prostoma account →

Specific to Kanchedza 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 prostoma.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in11.5 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth0–66 ft0–20 m
DietZooplanktivore; feeds in large mid-water schools on copepods and other zooplankton
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder; male builds sand-castle spawning cone and defends lek territoryNot formally published for this species; genus-typical for small Lake Malawi haplochromines (~20–50 eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males display a dark continuous mid-lateral stripe and intensified coloration; females and non-breeding males are drabber and schooling. Males defend spawning cone territories; females visit to spawn and depart.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Kanchedza Island population

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

Colour reference: living Kanchedza Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Nyassachromis prostoma is a slender, open-water haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, where it forms large foraging schools above sandy and open-water habitats throughout the lake. What makes it stand apart from the many other plankton-feeding 'utaka' haps is its breeding strategy: males build conspicuous sand-castle spawning cones on the lake floor and defend them in loose leks — a behavior that, combined with a dark lateral stripe, led Konings to pull the species out of the genus Copadichromis and place it, correctly, in Nyassachromis. It is the lake's only known lek-spawning cone-builder outside of the single Copadichromis likomae, making it one of the more behaviorally unusual members of an otherwise morphologically conservative genus.

Full Nyassachromis prostoma account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Nyassachromis prostoma "Kanchedza Island"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Nyassachromis prostoma (Trewavas 1935) species record (Updated 19 May 2026)
  3. FishBase — Nyassachromis prostoma (Trewavas, 1935)
  4. GBIF — Nyassachromis prostoma (Trewavas, 1935), taxon key 2370070
  5. The ETYFish Project — Order CICHLIFORMES: Family CICHLIDAE: Subfamily PSEUDOCRENILABRINAE (l-o): Nyassachromis prostoma etymology
  6. Trewavas, E. 1935 — A synopsis of the cichlid fishes of Lake Nyasa. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (Ser. 10) 16(91): 65–118