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Lake Tanganyika cichlids — species, locations & maps

Lake Tanganyika cichlids — species, locations & maps
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Telmatochromis sp. 'dhonti orange' (unknown locality)<br><font color=gray>Telmatochromis dhonti (unknown locality)</font>
Tribe / Genus: Lamprologini / Telmatochromis
Biotope: Most often found in sediment-rich rocky bays of intermediate habitat, typically at depths of about 5 to 15 m.
Typical adult size: Males up to about 12 cm, females up to about 8 cm.
Sexual dimorphism: Females are considerably smaller than males and usually weigh about half as much.
Recommended aquarium size: 120 L (for a pair).
Aquarium setup: Provide plenty of rockwork and use it to create as many caves as possible.
Diet: Carnivorous, taking a wide range of animal-based foods. In aquaria, offer varied live and frozen foods such as cyclops, mysis, and krill.
Breeding: A male typically maintains a harem of females. Each male and female defends its own cave, and sometimes an empty snail shell; smaller variants occur that use snail shells instead of caves.
Clutches are usually large (about 200 to 300 eggs) and are guarded mainly by the female, with the male intervening chiefly in cases of greater danger.
Aggression: Extremely aggressive within the species (especially males) and also towards other species. It is not well suited to a community aquarium; if kept in one, the aquarium should be at least 300 L and the other cichlids should be larger than it.
Special notes: A variant of Telmatochromis dhonti from the central part of the Tanzanian coast that is frequently exported from the lake for the aquarium trade.
Ad Konings considers it the same species as T. dhonti and notes that the orange coloration is visible only in aquaria, while in the lake these fish are stated to be dark brown like other T. dhonti variants.

Photo gallery

Photo: © Eric Dasmien
Photo: © Ljuba Tanganjika
Photo: © Ljuba Tanganjika
Photo: © Ljuba Tanganjika
Photo: © Patrick Tawil
Photo: © Patrick Tawil
Photo: © Patrick Tawil
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Lake Tanganyika cichlids — species, locations & maps.
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