Rhamphochromis woodi "Nkhata Bay"
Rhamphochromis woodi (Narungu, Nkhata Bay, South East Arm)
Nkhata Bay — n-KAH-tah BAY (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 woodi account →Specific to Nkhata Bay
- 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 woodi.
The Nkhata Bay population
Rhamphochromis woodi "Nkhata Bay" is the Nkhata Bay population of Rhamphochromis woodi, 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 woodi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Nkhata Bay fish at malawi.si →
About the species
Rhamphochromis woodi is one of Lake Malawi's open-water, pike-like predatory cichlids, part of the notoriously difficult genus Rhamphochromis whose elongate, silvery species patrol the lake's pelagic zone in loose, often mixed schools. Its species epithet is a personal eponym, honouring an individual associated with its collection or description whose identity is not confirmed here. Documented from the central and south-central lake around Narungu, Nkhata Bay and the South East Arm, it belongs to a group that Malawian fishers collectively call mcheni and that specialists still find genuinely difficult to sort into species.
Full Rhamphochromis woodi account →