Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Pseudotropheus tursiops

Pseudotropheus tursiops "Chizumulu Island"

Chizumulu Island — chee-zoo-MOO-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 Pseudotropheus tursiops account →

Specific to Chizumulu 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 Pseudotropheus tursiops.

IUCNNEAR THREATENED · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.3 in11 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth16 ft5 m
DietGrazes aufwuchs / omnivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~10–40 eggs (genus-typical; not separately documented)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales bluer with longer fins and stronger blue-and-white barred pattern, especially when territorial; females and subordinate males plainer.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chizumulu Island population

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

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

About the species

Pseudotropheus tursiops is a small rock-dwelling cichlid — an mbuna — found nowhere on Earth but the shallow rocky shores of one small island in Lake Malawi. Its standout feature is the one that named it: a notably long, blunt, dolphin-like snout (Tursiops is the genus of the bottlenose dolphin) that it uses as a precision tool, working algae out of cracks too narrow for its competitors. Confined to a single reef and lightly tapped by the aquarium trade, it is one of the lake's many micro-endemics whose entire world is a few square kilometres of stone.

Full Pseudotropheus tursiops account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Pseudotropheus tursiops "Chizumulu Island"
  2. Pseudotropheus tursiops — FishBase species summary
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Pseudotropheus tursiops (species record)
  4. FishBase — All fishes reported from Malawi (checklist)
  5. The ETYFish Project — Metriaclima vs. Maylandia analysis (Scharpf)
  6. Chavula et al. 2023 — Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa basin: status, challenges, and research needs (J. Great Lakes Res. 49(6):102241)