Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Otopharynx ovatus

Otopharynx ovatus "Boadzulu Island"

Otopharynx ovatus (Boadzulu Island, Chilucha Reef, Mumbo Island, Nkhomo Reef)

Boadzulu Island — boh-ah-DZOO-loo 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 Otopharynx ovatus account →

Specific to Boadzulu 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 Otopharynx ovatus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesOtopharynx auromarginatusdescribed as Tilapia auromarginata Boulenger 1908
Scientific size8 in20 cm total length
Temperature75–79 °F24–26 °C
pH7–8.5alkaline
Hardness (GH)slightly hard to very hard, alkaline214–357 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth—not recorded
DietPaedophage — feeds on the eggs (and larvae) of other cichlids (FishBase)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (inferred from genus/flock; not directly documented)Unrecorded; haps of this size typically lay a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales larger and more colourful in breeding condition, as in Malaŵi haps generally; females and non-territorial males plainer.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Boadzulu Island population

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

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

About the species

Otopharynx ovatus is a haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malaŵi, described by Ethelwynn Trewavas in 1935 from the southern end of the lake. One of the larger members of its genus at around 8 in, it hangs in midwater over rock and sand and carries the diagnostic Otopharynx three-spot melanic pattern. Its most distinctive habit is dietary: it is a paedophage, feeding on the eggs and larvae of other cichlids.

Full Otopharynx ovatus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Otopharynx ovatus "Boadzulu Island"
  2. FishBase — Otopharynx ovatus (Trewavas, 1935) (SpecCode 2199; size, distribution, egg-eating diet, water parameters)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Otopharynx ovatus (valid name, authorship, type locality 'southern end of Lake Nyasa')
  4. Trewavas, E., 1935 — A synopsis of the cichlid fishes of Lake Nyasa (original description as Haplochromis ovatus)
  5. Oliver, M.K., 2018 — Six New Species of the Cichlid Genus Otopharynx from Lake Malaŵi (genus diagnosis; O. ovatus melanic pattern; collected with O. mumboensis)
  6. The ETYFish Project — Otopharynx (etymology, incl. ovatus 'ovate, egg-shaped')
  7. IUCN Red List — otopharynx-ovatus
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