FermenteaWhere food goes to change
← Ingredients

Substrates

Ndunduma (Diplotaxodon spp.)

Loading ratings…

Ndunduma is the Malawian name for small deep-water cichlids of the genus Diplotaxodon, caught in Lake Malawi and dried with usipa and utaka. The species in a given lot is often not recorded.

Suggest a correction
Photograph of Ndunduma (Diplotaxodon spp.).

Deep-water cichlids of the open lake

Diplotaxodon is a genus of cichlids endemic to Lake Malawi. Its species live in offshore and deep water rather than among the rocks of the shore. Wikipedia describes a small group of formally described species, with several undescribed ones; its own species list and its stated count disagree, so the exact number should be checked against a taxonomic source before it is quoted. Adults measure 10 to 30 cm total length.

The species that the sources describe most closely is Diplotaxodon limnothrissa, described by Turner in 1994. FishBase gives it a maximum length of 15.4 cm standard length, a pelagic habit in inshore and offshore water, and a depth range of 20 to 220 m. It is zooplankton-feeding, and FishBase calls it probably the most abundant species in Lake Malawi. Other Diplotaxodon species are zooplankton feeders too, and some larger ones eat small pelagic fish.

Sources for this section

What the name covers

Ndunduma is a market name for the small dried cichlids of the open lake. The IDRC project that tested solar tents listed it as Diplotaxodon spp., alongside usipa and utaka. The Wikipedia article on the genus does not use the word ndunduma at all, so the link between the Malawian name and the genus rests on the trade and the project records rather than on a taxonomic source.

A solar-tent shelf-life study and a smoking and sun-drying study are both listed under the name Diplotaxodon limnothrissa (Ndunduma). Their titles name that species directly. This page does not use their results, because their full texts were not read. Until a lot is identified by species, the ingredient is best recorded at genus level.

Sources for this section

Catching the fish

Wikipedia reports that the genus is caught by small-scale methods, including Chirimila seines and baited hooks, and by trawling. Some seasonal fisheries heavily target the fish on their traditional breeding grounds. Because the fish are spread thinly across deep and offshore areas, they are hard to exploit economically, and the same article reports a potentially large stock, about 100,000 tonnes, with a sustainable yield around 20,000 tonnes. Those are the article’s figures and should be checked against the primary stock assessment before they are used for planning.

FishBase lists the species as commercially fished. Dried small-fish lots sold in Malawi are not always identified by species, so a lot may contain more than one fish.

Sources for this section

Breeding in open water

Wikipedia reports that females lay about 16 to 40 eggs on average, each 5 to 7 mm across, and that most species breed between February and August. The whole life cycle takes place in open water, which is why these fish are rarely seen from the shore and why seasonal catches concentrate on the breeding grounds.

Those reproductive facts are relevant to a buyer as well as a biologist. The sources record the targeting of breeding grounds as a conservation concern, not as a drying rule.

Sources for this section

Drying in solar tents

The IDRC project tested solar tents on usipa, utaka and ndunduma as three groups of small Lake Malawi fish. The tent was a UV-treated polythene enclosure with low inlet vents, high outlet vents and racks inside. The project reports that drying time was similar to open sun drying in the dry season and shorter in the rainy season, and that dried fish from the tents had a seven-week shelf life against three weeks for sun-dried fish, under its own storage conditions.

The project figures are given for the three fish together. This page does not assign those results to ndunduma alone. The utaka study, which was opened for this record, measured moisture and bacterial counts for utaka only. The ndunduma tent results therefore need the species study before they can be quoted as the fish’s own.

Sources for this section

Unknowns

The sources opened for this page do not give the nutrient content of ndunduma, its price, a dried-fish moisture target, a drying duration for this fish, a sample size for its tent results, or a conservation status for the genus. FishBase gives the trophic level of D. limnothrissa as 3.1 with a standard error of 0.46, which describes its diet but not its food value.

The sources also do not say whether all dried ndunduma is one species. Until a species study is read and cited, the record should not claim that every dried lot is D. limnothrissa.

Sources for this section

Places

No source in this record establishes a place.

Related

What to make with it

  • Solar-tent dried usipa, utaka and ndunduma

    Small Lake Malawi fish, usipa, utaka and ndunduma, dried on racks inside UV-treated polythene solar tents. Tested in Malawi as a drier, less lossy alternative to open sun drying on racks.

Community

No community contributions have been published for this entry yet.

Share what you made

Sign in to contribute. Published comments and photos are free to read.

Share a creation photoSuggest a correction

Sources