Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Chizumulu"

Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Chizumulu" "Chizumulu Island"

Chizumulu Island — chee-zoo-MOO-loo EYE-land (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 Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Chizumulu" account →

Specific to Chizumulu Island

  • 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 Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Chizumulu".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4 in10.5 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth7–66 ft2–20 m
DietAlgae grazer (aufwuchs), rasping the algal mat from rock surfaces at a steep, head-down angle characteristic of the genus
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; genus-typical, on the order of a few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesSexual dichromatism presumed typical for the genus; no specific colour account documented for this population.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chizumulu Island population

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

Colour reference: living Chizumulu Island fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Chizumulu" is an undescribed mbuna from Chizumulu Island and Linganjala Reef, in the northern part of Lake Malawi near Likoma. Its name places it in an informally recognised "elongatus" morphotype within Tropheops — a more slender, torpedo-shaped body plan than the genus's typically deep, stocky build — that recurs independently at several separated reefs, each with its own locality tag. It is not the same lineage as the similarly named "elongatus" complex found in other Malawi mbuna genera. It has no formal description, and no authority, IUCN status, or FishBase entry should be attached to it.

Full Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Chizumulu" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Elongatus Chizumulu" "Chizumulu Island"
  2. Cichlid Room Companion — genus Tropheops
  3. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (Fricke, Eschmeyer & Van der Laan, eds., CAS) — searched: no valid name for the undescribed "Elongatus Chizumulu" form