Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Trematocranus placodon

Trematocranus placodon "Malopa"Snail-crusher Hap

Trematocranus placodon (Itungi, Likoma Island, Liuli, Malopa, Mdowa, Mvunguti, Nkhata Bay, Ntekete, Ruarwe)

Malopa — mah-LOH-pah (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 Trematocranus placodon account →

Specific to Malopa

  • 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 Trematocranus placodon.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2019
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesTrematocranus microstomaTrewavas 1935
Scientific size10 in25 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.8alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 179 ppm
Habitat watermoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppmLake Malawi
Depth16–105 ft5–32 m
DietMolluscivore (crushes snails with pharyngeal teeth)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderUp to ~100 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesBreeding males larger and metallic blue with darker barring and egg-spotted anal fin; females and non-breeding fish silvery with faint vertical bars.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Malopa population

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

Colour reference: living Malopa fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Trematocranus placodon, the snail-crusher hap, is a sand-dwelling cichlid of Lake Malawi and its outflow waters that earns its name with a set of flat, paving-stone teeth on its throat bones, used to grind open lake snails. That same specialization makes it more than a curiosity: by cropping the snails that carry human schistosomiasis, the fish sits at an unusual intersection of cichlid ecology and public health. It is a big, handsome haplochromine that males turn out in metallic blues to spawn over broad sand craters they sculpt by mouth.

Full Trematocranus placodon account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Trematocranus placodon "Malopa"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Trematocranus placodon (Regan 1922)
  3. FishBase — Trematocranus placodon summary
  4. Malawi Cichlids (malawicichlids.com) — Trematocranus placodon
  5. Madsen, Kamanga, Stauffer & Likongwe (2010), Biology of the Molluscivorous Fish Trematocranus placodon, Journal of Freshwater Ecology 25:449-455
  6. Chiotha, McKaye & Stauffer (1991), Prey handling in Trematocranus placodon — abstract
  7. IUCN Red List — Trematocranus placodon "Malopa"
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