''Chilotilapia'' is a genus of freshwater fish in the

cichlid Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have contradicted this ...

family. It contains the sole species ''Chilotilapia rhoadesii'', the Malawi bream, which is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest fre ...

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

, where it prefers areas with muddy substrates from the shallows to quite deep waters. Its primary food consists of ''

Melanoides ''Melanoides'' is a genus of freshwater snail with an operculum (gastropod), operculum, an Aquatic animal, aquatic gastropod mollusk in the subfamily Thiarinae of the family Thiaridae.Bouchet, P. (2014). Melanoides Olivier, 1804. Accessed through ...

'' and ''

Lanistes ''Lanistes'' is a genus of freshwater snails which have a gill and an operculum, aquatic gastropod mollusks in the family Ampullariidae, the apple snails.Bouchet, P.; Neubauer, Thomas A. (2015). Lanistes Montfort, 1810. In: MolluscaBase (2015) ...

'' snails. It can reach a length of TL. Though commonly called a "bream", this is due to its looks as it is quite unrelated to the

bream Bream ( ) are species of freshwater and marine fish belonging to a variety of genera including ''Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), ''Acanthopagrus'', '' Argyrops'', ''Blicca'', '' Brama'', ''Chilotilapia'', '' Etelis'', ''Lepo ...

s proper, which are

cypriniform Cypriniformes is an order of ray-finned fish, including the carps, minnows, loaches, and relatives. Cypriniformes is an Order within the Superorder Ostariophysi consisting of "Carp-like" Ostariophysins. This order contains 11-12 families ...

fishes. This species is also found in the

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

trade.

References

Haplochromini Fish of Lake Malawi Taxa named by George Albert Boulenger Monotypic ray-finned fish genera Cichlid genera {{Cichlidae-stub