Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Placidochromis communis

Placidochromis communis "South East Arm"

South East Arm — SOWTH EEST ARM (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 Placidochromis communis account →

Specific to South East Arm

  • 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 Placidochromis communis.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3 in7.7 cm standard length
Temperature73–81 °F23–27 °C
pH7.8–8.6alkaline
Depth403–482 ft123–147 m
DietPresumed benthic invertivore (no direct study; inferred from genus and very deep habitat)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (inferred from Malawi haplochromine flock; not documented for this species)Unrecorded for this species
Sexual dimorphismNot documentedNot documented; known mainly from preserved, trawled specimens, so breeding coloration and dimorphism are unrecorded.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The South East Arm population

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

Colour reference: living South East Arm fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Placidochromis communis is a small, very deep-water haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, described in 2004 by Mark Hanssens in his monographic revision of the lake's deep-living Placidochromis. Its type series was trawled from around 145-147 m in Young's Bay in the north of the lake, among the deepest-dwelling cichlids known. Its name — 'common' — refers not to abundance but to the fish's deliberately unremarkable, generalised appearance, which makes it a sort of baseline against which its more distinctive deep-water relatives are compared.

Full Placidochromis communis account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Placidochromis communis "South East Arm"
  2. FishBase — Placidochromis communis Hanssens, 2004 (SpecCode 62386; size, distribution, depth 123-147 m, IUCN)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Placidochromis communis (valid name, authorship, type data; type locality Young's Bay, Malawi, 145-147 m)
  4. Hanssens, M., 2004 — The deep-water Placidochromis species. In: J. Snoeks (ed.), The Cichlid Diversity of Lake Malawi/Nyasa/Niassa: Identification, Distribution and Taxonomy, pp. 104-197. Cichlid Press (original description)
  5. ETYFish Project — Placidochromis communis (etymology: 'common/general,' for its unremarkable appearance)
  6. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (deep-water Placidochromis and Malawi hap ecology, background reference)