Taxonomy & naming
The species was described by Worthington and Ricardo in 1937, and the parentheses around the authority show that it was first placed in a different genus. The Catalog of Fishes lists Lophiobagrus cyclurus as valid, with the type locality given only as Lake Tanganyika, East Africa. The genus Lophiobagrus belongs to a small group of bagrid catfishes found only in that lake, and the species is sold in the trade as the African bullhead.
Morphology
FishBase gives a maximum length of 3 in SL. The body is stout and broad-headed, with the four pairs of barbels typical of bagrid catfishes and a rounded tail, which gives the species its name. Like other bagrids it carries a stiff pectoral spine that can lock outward and injure a hand or tangle in a net.
Habitat
L. cyclurus lives in Lake Tanganyika, which borders Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania and Zambia. FishBase lists it as a freshwater, bottom-living fish that sits concealed among rocks by day and is active mainly at night. FishBase gives a water range of 73–79 °F, pH 7.5 to 8.0 and hardness 15 to 25 dH, which matches the hard, alkaline, well-buffered water of the lake.
Feeding
FishBase records chironomid larvae, beetle larvae and small crustaceans as the food, with occasional plant material. In the aquarium it takes live and frozen bloodworm, brine shrimp and small chopped fish or shrimp, offered after the lights go down.
Mating
Courtship is not recorded in the sources the atlas draws on, and no description of pairing behaviour is available for this species.
Breeding
Breeding details are not recorded in FishBase for this species. A cave-dwelling bottom fish is given caves and tubes in rift-lake tanks, but no controlled account of spawning or fry care is recorded here.
In the aquarium
A tank of around 25 US gal with piles of rock, caves and a sand floor suits a small group or a single fish. Water should match the lake: hard, alkaline and warm, at the FishBase ranges above. FishBase notes that the mucus of this species is poisonous to other fishes, so crowding with small tankmates, or stress during netting and transport, carries a real risk. Keep it with robust Tanganyikan cichlids rather than delicate fish, and move it in a container rather than a net.
Conservation
IUCN lists the species as Least Concern, last assessed in 2006. It has a wide range within the lake, and FishBase notes that it has no value as a food fish. The Tanganyika shoreline faces sedimentation and fishing pressure, and aquarium collecting of this species is small by comparison.