Copadichromis borleyi "Jalo Reef"
Jalo Reef — JAH-loh REEF (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 Copadichromis borleyi account →Specific to Jalo Reef
- 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 Copadichromis borleyi.
The Jalo Reef population
Copadichromis borleyi is Lake Malawi's premier open-water zooplankton specialist — a sleek, fast-moving haplochromine that schools above rocky reefs in the utaka guild, the males erupting into spectacular blue-headed, flame-flanked colour when they reach breeding condition, which is how the species earned its trade name "Red Empress." The Jalo Reef form originates from a rocky reef feature in the southern basin of Lake Malawi near the Cape Maclear area at approximately 13°53'S, where the reef-to-open-water interface concentrates zooplankton and provides the structured substrate that breeding males defend as display territories. Like all location variants of Copadichromis borleyi, the Jalo Reef form is tracked in the hobby because the colour intensity and exact hue of the red-orange flanks varies meaningfully between collection points, and serious breeders maintain locality-pure lines to preserve those differences.
Colour reference: living Jalo Reef fish at seriouslyfish.com →
About the species
Copadichromis borleyi is a zooplankton-feeding cichlid endemic to Lake Malawi and one of the most recognizable members of the lake's "utaka" guild — the open-water haplochromines that hover in shoals above the rocks and pick drifting copepods out of the current. Sold across the hobby as the "red fin" or "Kadango" hap, it pairs a vivid blue-faced, red- or yellow-flanked male with a flexible, suction-style feeding habit that ties it tightly to the lake's plankton. It is common, widespread, and listed as Least Concern, even as the basin it depends on comes under growing strain.
Full Copadichromis borleyi account →Sources
- Iles, T.D. (1960). A group of zooplankton feeders (Haplochromis) in Lake Nyasa. Annals and Magazine of Natural History (13)3: 257–280
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Copadichromis borleyi
- FishBase — Copadichromis borleyi
- Konings, A. (2016). Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 5th ed. Cichlid Press
- IUCN Red List — Copadichromis borleyi (Least Concern, 2018)
- Seriously Fish — Copadichromis borleyi
- Cichlid Room Companion — Copadichromis borleyi
- Chavula, G. et al. (2023). Threats to Lake Malawi biodiversity. Fisheries Research