Copadichromis borleyi "Mbenji Island"
Mbenji Island — m-BEHN-jee 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 Copadichromis borleyi account →Specific to Mbenji 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 Copadichromis borleyi.
The Mbenji Island population
Copadichromis borleyi is one of Lake Malawi's most spectacular open-water haplochromines: a zooplankton specialist — a member of the loosely defined utaka guild — that hunts individual plankters in the water column above rocky reefs. Dominant males earn the popular name "Red Empress" through a dazzling livery of cobalt-blue head and face set against flanks that burn red, orange, or yellow depending on collection point and mood, while females and juveniles remain cryptically silvery. The Mbenji Island form is collected from a small island lying roughly mid-lake off the south-central western shore of Malawi at approximately 13°43'S, 34°32'E; island isolation has produced a population whose male coloration trends toward a deep brick-red on the flanks, and hobbyists have maintained it as a named line to preserve that distinctive expression. Location variants of Copadichromis borleyi have long been tracked by specialist keepers because subtle but consistent coloration differences between populations — Kadango, Mbenji, Nkhata Bay, and others — are genuine biological signals worth preserving in captivity.
Colour reference: living Mbenji Island 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