Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Rhamphochromis esox

Rhamphochromis esox "Taiwanee Reef"

Taiwanee Reef — ty-WAHN-ee REEF (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 Rhamphochromis esox account →

Specific to Taiwanee Reef

  • 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 Rhamphochromis esox.

IUCNVULNERABLE · 2019
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size16.5 in42 cm standard length
Temperature73–82 °F23–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth7–213 ft2–65 m
DietPelagic piscivore (small open-water fish)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder117-680 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMature males brighter — orange pelvic fins, dorsal/anal fins flushing blue, and an anal fin with up to about eight eggspots that can turn intensely orange; females and overall ground colour stay silvery
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Taiwanee Reef population

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

Colour reference: living Taiwanee Reef fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Rhamphochromis esox is the streamlined, fish-eating cichlid that hobbyists nickname the "Malawi barracuda" and Malawian fishers call mcheni. Endemic to Lake Malawi, it is the most distinctive and easily recognized member of a notoriously confusing genus of open-water predators, built like a torpedo around a long jaw full of teeth. While most of its relatives stalk the dim offshore depths, Rhamphochromis esox hunts in shallow, near-surface water, which puts an otherwise lake-wide and abundant fish squarely in the path of the inshore fishery that has driven its numbers down.

Full Rhamphochromis esox account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Rhamphochromis esox "Taiwanee Reef"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Rhamphochromis esox (species record)
  3. FishBase: Rhamphochromis esox (Boulenger, 1908)
  4. iNaturalist taxon: Rhamphochromis esox
  5. Ngwira (2021), GRÓ Fisheries Training Programme: aquaculture potential of Rhamphochromis (ecology, maturity, fecundity, breeding)
  6. Turner, Robinson, Shaw & Carvalho (2004): Identification and biology of Diplotaxodon, Rhamphochromis and Pallidochromis (genus revision, via Catalog of Fishes references)