Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Stigmatochromis pholidophorus

Stigmatochromis pholidophorus "Chiloelo"

Chiloelo — chee-loh-EH-loh (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 Stigmatochromis pholidophorus account →

Specific to Chiloelo

  • 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 Stigmatochromis pholidophorus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7.1 in18 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth16–98 ft5–30 m
DietPiscivore — mid-water drop-strike predator on juvenile cichlids
BreedingMaternal (ovophilous) mouthbrooder; polygynous, no pair bondNot formally documented; habitat-typical for size class ~40–80 eggs [FLAGGED: estimated, not published for this species]
Sexual dimorphismYesMales grow larger (to ~18 cm) and develop blue-grey breeding coloration; females smaller (~14–16 cm) with plainer body and visible spot pattern.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chiloelo population

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

Colour reference: living Chiloelo fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Stigmatochromis pholidophorus is a widespread but seldom-seen haplochromine cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi, found lake-wide across the sandy and transition zones of all three shoreline nations. It earns its specific epithet — literally 'scale-bearer' in Greek — from the row of dark spots along the base of its dorsal fin, and it hunts with an unusual mid-water patience: hovering motionless above a sandy patch, sometimes a metre off the bottom, before dropping in a sudden lunge to seize a juvenile fish. Rarely exported and poorly established in the hobby, it remains one of Malawi's more enigmatic sand predators.

Full Stigmatochromis pholidophorus account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Stigmatochromis pholidophorus "Chiloelo"
  2. FishBase — Stigmatochromis pholidophorus (Candle hap)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Stigmatochromis pholidophorus (species record; Trewavas 1935)
  4. Stauffer, J.R. Jr., Cleaver-Yoder, R.M. & Konings, A.F. (2011) — 'Two new species of Stigmatochromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa', Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 124(3): 212–222
  5. Eccles, D.H. & Trewavas, E. (1989) — Malawian Cichlid Fishes: The Classification of Some Haplochromine Genera (Lake Fish Movies, Germany)
  6. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)