1. Fishes in Lake Malawi

World’s Interest to Lake Malawi

Lakes, rivers and oceans are three major environments that the fish lives. Since a lot of water is kept closed inside the lake, the environment of the lake does not change easily. It is also true, however, that the lake environment cannot be recovered easily once it is damaged.

Life span of a lake is generally about some 10,000 years, for the lake keep becoming shallower because of the soil from the rivers. However, Lake Malawi and other African Great Lakes have especially long history, and they are still becoming deeper. Lake Malawi is thought to be about 3,000,000 years old.

Lake Malawi is known to the world with its enormous variety of the fishes. 500-1000 different species of fish are found, and most of these fish are found only in Lake Malawi. 90% of these fishes belong to the family called “Cichlid”, which includes Utaka, Mbuna, Mcheni and many other kinds. It is thought that all of these 500 different cichlids have developed from thesame origin, for about 2,000,000 years.

There are some other kinds of fish which live in the Lake, and most of them are also found only in Malawi. Catfishes such as Kampango, Bombe, cyprinid fishes such as Usipa, Ningwe, Nchila, Mpasa and Sanjika.

Common fish found in the lakes


Mbuna 		"Mbuna" is the most diverged group among these cichlid fish. This group includes many generic like Tropheus, Petrotilapia and Melanochromis. Mbuna is especially popular to the world as the aquarium fish, because they are colorful and beautiful. These fish are exported and delivered alive by airplane, and traded for high price of about a thousand Kwacha for one fish.
"Utaka" (Copadichromis, Otopharynx, etc) is also kinds of cichlids that is very common and popular as a food fish in Malawi. Utaka is a general name including several species that inhabit off shore in the Lake. Most of them mainly eat plankton and grow up to 10~20 cm in length.
Utaka (lower)

Chambo 		"Chambo" (Oreochromis sp. etc.) is the most popular and favored fish in Malawi. This includes a few kinds of large cichlids that reach to 30 cm. Some of them are found at offshore on the lake and another is found at weedy point in the river. They usually swim in the water in groups.
"Mcheni" (Rhamphochromis species) is one of the largest cichlids. Their total length can reache 50cm. They are very fierce fish, the hunters in the water. They cruise the off shore in a group, and chase and eat small fish like Usipa.
Mcheni

Usipa 		"Usipa" (Engraulicypris Engraulicyprisardella) is one of the non-cichlid fish. These small fish swim in huge numbers near the surface of the lake. Since they like brightness, they are usually active in the daytime, and gather around the illumination at night.
"Matemba" (Barbus paludinosus) inhabits in somewhat muddy water such as the river, marsh and pond rather than in big lakes. Lake Chirwa is a main habitat of this small fish. Matemba is a cyprinid fish same as Usipa.
Matemba

Kampango 		"Kampango" (Bagrus meridionalis) is a famous catfish in Malawi. The parents of this fish make a nest on the bottom of the water. The mother fish feed her young on her eggs as food. Kampango is the only fish in the world that has unique habit of “egg feeding”. Kampango is found in Lake Malawi, Lake Malombe and Shire River.
"Mlamba" (Clarias gariepinus) is a common catfish in Malawi. It grows to over 50 cm in length, but middle size (20~30 cm) fish is most preferred as food. The environment that this fish lives is similar to that of Matemba.
Mlamba