Lake Tanganyika cichlids — species, locations & maps

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Trematocara macrostoma 'Chituta Bay'.jpg Trematocara macrostoma 'Kalambo Lodge'.jpg
Previous pageTrematocara macrostoma 'Kalambo Lodge'
Tribe / Genus: Trematocarini / Trematocara
Type locality: Coast of Moba, Lake Tanganyika, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Biotope: Deep-water habitats over muddy or soft substrates. The species has never been observed alive and is known only from specimens collected at considerable depths.
Geographic distribution: Endemic to Lake Tanganyika. Known from the southwestern part of the lake, with records between Moba (Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Chituta Bay (Zambia).
Typical adult size: Approximately 10 cm total length.
Sexual dimorphism: Very pronounced. Mature males possess an extremely high dorsal fin, often more than twice the height of that in females. Males also show darker coloration, black ventral fins, darker dorsal fin markings, and black gill membranes, while females have mostly clear fins with only a dusky anal fin.
Diet: The exceptionally large mouth and villiform teeth have led to several hypotheses, including plankton feeding by swimming with the mouth open, scale-feeding, or piscivory on other fishes, possibly even other Trematocara species. All examined specimens had empty stomachs, likely due to regurgitation caused by pressure changes during collection.
Breeding: Based on the strong sexual dimorphism, the species is presumed to be a maternal mouthbrooder, as in other members of the genus. The extremely high dorsal fin of males is thought to play a role in courtship display.
Special notes: Trematocara macrostoma is immediately recognizable by its exceptionally large, deeply cleft mouth and by the extremely elevated dorsal fin of mature males, a feature unique among Tanganyikan cichlids. The species was temporarily placed in a separate genus (Telotrematocara) because of its unusual mouth morphology, but later studies demonstrated that these characters fall within the variation of Trematocara. It remains one of the rarest and most spectacular deep-water cichlids known from Lake Tanganyika.

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Photo: © Zuzana Musilova
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Lake Tanganyika cichlids — species, locations & maps.
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