Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter"

Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter" "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 Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter" 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 Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in11 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Hardness (GH)very hardup to 446 ppm
Depth10–66 ft3–20 m
DietAlgae grazer, scraping aufwuchs from rock surfaces using specialised comb-like teeth
Breedingmaternal mouthbroodernot documented for this form; expected modest, a few dozen eggs, by analogy with similarly sized Tropheops
Sexual dimorphismYesMature males show a golden-yellow body colouration; female colouration not separately documented for this population.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Otter Point population

Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter" "Otter Point" is the Otter Point population of Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter", a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter", 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

Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter" is an undescribed rock-dwelling mbuna recorded from Otter Point near Cape Maclear in the southern part of Lake Malawi, one of the most intensively surveyed and longest-collected mbuna sites on the lake. Its trade name refers to a golden-yellow colouration developed by mature males, combined with the Otter Point locality. Like all Tropheops it grazes aufwuchs from rock using specialised comb-like teeth. It has never been formally described, so it carries no authority, no publication year, no FishBase entry, and no IUCN assessment.

Full Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Tropheops sp. "Gold Otter" "Otter Point"
  2. malawi.si — Konings-based Lake Malawi cichlid species and locality database (Tropheops)
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Malawi cichlid genus and undescribed-form references (Ad Konings, curator)
  4. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority)