Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Rhamphochromis longiceps

Rhamphochromis longiceps "Otter Point"

Otter Point — OT-ter POYNT (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 longiceps account →

Specific to Otter Point

  • 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 longiceps.

IUCNVULNERABLE · 2019
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size11 in28 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Depth10–243 ft3–74 m
DietPelagic piscivore (small open-water fish)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~27–68 eggs (IUCN); field records of 52–76
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males turn darker bluish-grey on the back and, in lake populations, can show bright orange pelvic fins; females and immatures keep a more greenish dorsal cast.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Otter Point population

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

Colour reference: living Otter Point fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Rhamphochromis longiceps is a slender, fast-swimming open-water cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi and the upper Shire River, one of a handful of "tigerfish" or "Malawi barracuda" predators that hunt in the lake's clear pelagic blue rather than over its famous rocky reefs. Built like a torpedo with a long pointed head and small interlocking teeth, it spends most of its life chasing the sardine-like usipa across the open lake, then slips into weedy inshore bays only to release its young. It is a maternal mouthbrooder, like almost every Malawi cichlid, but its niche could hardly be more different from the algae-grazing mbuna that dominate the aquarium trade.

Full Rhamphochromis longiceps account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Rhamphochromis longiceps "Otter Point"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Rhamphochromis longiceps (Günther 1864)
  3. FishBase: Rhamphochromis longiceps (Tigerfish) summary
  4. Magasa, FAO: A brief review of the fish stocks and dependent fisheries of Lake Malawi
  5. Genner et al. 2007, Evolution of a cichlid fish in a Lake Malawi satellite lake (Proc. R. Soc. B 274:2249)
  6. Dynamic body size evolution during speciation of predatory cichlid fishes (Genome Research 36:949)