Otopharynx heterodon "Mphanga Rocks"
Mphanga Rocks — m-PAHN-gah ROKS (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 heterodon account →Specific to Mphanga Rocks
- 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 heterodon.
The Mphanga Rocks population
Otopharynx heterodon "Mphanga Rocks" is the Mphanga Rocks population of Otopharynx heterodon, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Otopharynx heterodon, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mphanga Rocks fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Otopharynx heterodon, the royal blue hap, is a mid-sized haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, where it ranges the length of the lake along the seam between rock and sand. Males glow metallic blue with a yellow chest; the more sober, three-spotted females do the parenting, brooding eggs in their mouths. It earns its living the unglamorous way — sifting edible particles out of sediment stirred up off the bottom — and its mild temperament has made it a recurring, if cyclical, favorite among Malawi aquarists.
Full Otopharynx heterodon account →Sources
- malawi.si — Otopharynx heterodon "Mphanga Rocks"
- Otopharynx heterodon (Royal blue hap) — FishBase species summary
- Otopharynx heterodon — FishBase territory/distribution list
- Haplochromis heterodon Trewavas, 1935 — FishBase synonym detail
- Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer/CAS) — Otopharynx heterodon species record
- Otopharynx heterodon (Trewavas, 1935) — CLOFFA / Africa Museum type record