Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Oreochromis lidole

Oreochromis lidole "Malembo"Lidole

Oreochromis lidole (Malembo)

Malembo — mah-LEHM-boh (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 Oreochromis lidole account →

Specific to Malembo

  • 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 Oreochromis lidole.

IUCNCRITICALLY ENDANGERED (POSSIBLY EXTINCT) · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesOreochromis hunteriGünther 1889
Scientific size15 in38 cm standard length
Temperature72–82 °F22–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth98–328 ft30–100 m
DietPhytoplankton feeder (open-water filter-grazer; trophic level ~2.3)
BreedingMaternal (female) mouthbrooder; lek-breeding males build and defend sand-castle nestsSeveral hundred eggs for a large female (genus-typical); detailed data now largely historical
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males turn black and build sand-castle nests at communal leks; non-breeding fish are silvery pelagic tilapias.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Malembo population

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

Colour reference: living Malembo fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Oreochromis lidole is one of the four 'chambo' — the open-water tilapias of Lake Malawi that for generations underpinned the lake's most valuable fishery. A deep-water, phytoplankton-feeding maternal mouthbrooder whose breeding males turn black and build sand-castle nests, lidole was once a cornerstone of the chambo catch. Today it is Critically Endangered and feared possibly extinct: no specimen has been confidently identified since the early 1990s, a collapse driven by relentless overfishing of the chambo complex.

Full Oreochromis lidole account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Oreochromis lidole "Malembo"
  2. FishBase — Oreochromis lidole (Trewavas, 1941), Lidole
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Tilapia lidole Trewavas 1941 (valid as Oreochromis lidole; synonymy)
  4. Trewavas, E. (1941) — original description of the Lake Nyasa (Malawi) chambo (Tilapia lidole)
  5. Trewavas, E. (1983) — Tilapiine Fishes of the Genera Sarotherodon, Oreochromis and Danakilia (chambo treatment). British Museum (Natural History)
  6. Turner, G.F. et al. — Decline of the chambo (Oreochromis spp.) fishery of Lake Malawi (fisheries collapse)
  7. IUCN Red List — Oreochromis lidole "Malembo"
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