Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Nyassachromis purpurans

Nyassachromis purpurans "Chizi Point"

Chizi Point — CHEE-zee POYNT (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 purpurans account →

Specific to Chizi Point

  • 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 purpurans.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7.1 in18 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth—not recorded
DietOpen-water plankton feeder (FishBase; trophic level ~3.4)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder; territorial male builds a sand turret topped by a spawning platformUnrecorded for this species
Sexual dimorphismYesGenus-typical: breeding males the more strongly coloured (the type name records a purplish preserved male) and larger; females silvery. Not described in detail for living fish.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chizi Point population

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

Colour reference: living Chizi Point fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Nyassachromis purpurans is a sand-dwelling cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, described by Ethelwynn Trewavas in 1935 from the lake's northern end in what is now Tanzania. Its name records the purplish, dark coloration of the preserved male type specimens. A fish of shallow sandy areas, it feeds on plankton in open water and, like the rest of its genus, breeds at sand nests built by the males — heaped turrets topped by a spawning platform. It is currently rated Least Concern by the IUCN.

Full Nyassachromis purpurans account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Nyassachromis purpurans "Chizi Point"
  2. FishBase — Nyassachromis purpurans (Trewavas, 1935)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Nyassachromis purpurans (species record; Mwaya/Mbasi River mouth type locality, valid name)
  4. Trewavas, E., 1935 — A synopsis of the cichlid fishes of Lake Nyasa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (Series 10) 16(91): 65–118 (original description, Haplochromis purpurans)
  5. Eccles, D. H. & E. Trewavas, 1989 — Malawian Cichlid Fishes: a classification of some Haplochromine genera (Nyassachromis erected; purpurans placed here)
  6. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae l–o): Nyassachromis purpurans etymology (Latin purpurans, 'purple-coloured', for the preserved male type)