Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Otopharynx argyrosoma

Otopharynx argyrosoma "Madimba Bay"

Madimba Bay — mah-DEEM-bah BAY (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 Otopharynx argyrosoma account →

Specific to Madimba Bay

  • 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 Otopharynx argyrosoma.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6 in15.2 cm total length
Temperature73–82 °F23–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth—not recorded
DietCarnivore/planktivore — feeds on small invertebrates and plankton taken from the sand and from the water column
BreedingPresumed maternal mouthbrooder (inferred from the Malaŵi haplochromine flock; not documented for this species)Unrecorded for this species
Sexual dimorphismNot documentedNot documented in detail; Malaŵi haps are typically dimorphic, with breeding males more strongly coloured than the silvery females.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Madimba Bay population

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

Colour reference: living Madimba Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Otopharynx argyrosoma is a silvery, sand-dwelling haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malaŵi, described by Charles Tate Regan in 1922. Reaching about 15 cm, it lives over sandy bottoms in both shallow and deeper water, sifting small invertebrates and plankton from the substrate and the water column. Its name — Greek for 'silver body' — captures its bright, scaly sheen, and it is one of the more widely distributed and commercially familiar members of its genus, known locally as the saguga.

Full Otopharynx argyrosoma account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Otopharynx argyrosoma "Madimba Bay"
  2. FishBase — Otopharynx argyrosoma (Regan, 1922) (size, distribution, diet, ecology, common name)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Otopharynx argyrosoma (valid name, authorship, type data)
  4. Maréchal, C., 1991 — Otopharynx, p. 347–351, in Check-list of the Freshwater Fishes of Africa (CLOFFA) Vol. 4 (distribution, ecology)
  5. Oliver, M.K., 2018 — Six new species of the cichlid genus Otopharynx from Lake Malaŵi (comparative diagnosis vs. O. argyrosoma; lacks vertical bars)
  6. Eccles, D.H. & E. Trewavas, 1989 — Malaŵian Cichlid Fishes: a classification of some Haplochromine genera (genus Otopharynx)