Petrochromis ephippium "Udachi"Moshi Yellow
Petrochromis ephippium (Bondola Bay, Cape Mpimbwe, Cape Nambeyeye, Chituta Bay, Gombe NP, Halembe, Isanga Bay, Kala, Kalala Island, Kalambo Lodge, Kambwimba, Kantalamba, Karilani Island, Katondo Point, Kekese, Kerenge Island, Kigoma, Lumbye Bay, Lupita Island, Mabilibili, Mahale Mountains NP, Miyako Point, Mtosi, Mtoto, Mvuna Island, Samazi, Sibwesa, Siyeswe Bay, Udachi, Ulwile Island, Zambia)
Udachi — oo-DAH-chee (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 Petrochromis ephippium account →Specific to Udachi
- 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 Petrochromis ephippium.
The Udachi population
Petrochromis ephippium "Udachi" is the Udachi population of Petrochromis ephippium, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Petrochromis ephippium, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Udachi fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Petrochromis ephippium is a robust, algae-grazing cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, where it works the shallow tumble of rocks just below the surface, combing a living film of diatoms and filamentous algae off stone with rows of fine tricuspid teeth. Its species name means "saddle" in Latin, a nod to the pale, roughly rectangular patch many fish carry beneath the dorsal fin. To hobbyists it usually arrives under the trade tag "Petrochromis sp. Moshi" or "Moshi Yellow" — a big, pugnacious, fast-moving fish that demands a long tank and a keeper who understands its herbivorous gut.
Full Petrochromis ephippium account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Petrochromis ephippium "Udachi"
- FishBase — Petrochromis ephippium summary
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (Cal. Academy of Sciences)
- GBIF — Petrochromis ephippium
- Mattsson, C. (2018) — A morphological and molecular analysis of the species diversity of the cichlid genus Petrochromis from Lake Tanganyika (bioRxiv 280263)
- Yamaoka — Feeding behaviour and dental morphology of algae-scraping cichlids in Lake Tanganyika (African Study Monographs)
- IUCN Red List — Petrochromis ephippium "Udachi"