Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Alticorpus mentale

Alticorpus mentale "Narungu"

Narungu — nah-ROON-goo (approx.)

The fish

How this cichlid is built, and everything about how it lives, eats and breeds, is shared with the species — this page doesn't repeat it.

Read the full Alticorpus mentale account →

Specific to Narungu

  • Collection locality & coordinates
  • Local coloration — best judged from the living-fish photo
  • Kept as a single-provenance line, never crossed with other collection points

Care facts below are the species' — shared with Alticorpus mentale.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2018
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7.9 in20.1 cm standard length
Temperature72–79 °F22–26 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth59–492 ft18–150 m
DietBenthic micro-feeder of sand and mud bottoms (diatoms, detritus, small invertebrates; trophic level ~2.7)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (inferred from genus/flock)Unrecorded for this species; congeners carry moderate clutches (~100s of eggs)
Sexual dimorphismMinimalNo clear external sexual dimorphism documented — consistent with a fish that breeds in dark, deep water.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Narungu population

Alticorpus mentale "Narungu" is the Narungu population of Alticorpus mentale, a geographic colour form from the Malawi coast of Lake Malawi in the south-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Alticorpus mentale, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Narungu fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Alticorpus mentale is the type species of its genus and one of the deep-water cichlids found only in Lake Malawi — sometimes called the Monkey Bay cichlid, after the southern bay off which it was first trawled. Its name points to its most obvious feature: a projecting bony chin, the mental process at the tip of the lower jaw. It lives mostly below 60 metres over sand and mud, its head riddled with enlarged sensory pores, built to hunt in the cold, dim water far beneath the lake's better-known reefs. This is a fish of the trawl net, not the collector's bucket, and it never reaches the aquarium trade in any real sense.

Full Alticorpus mentale account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Alticorpus mentale "Narungu"
  2. FishBase — Alticorpus mentale Stauffer & McKaye, 1988 (species summary, SpecCode 2192)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Alticorpus mentale Stauffer & McKaye 1988 (species record; type species of Alticorpus, type data)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Alticorpus Stauffer & McKaye 1988 (genus record; type Alticorpus mentale)
  5. Stauffer, J.R. & McKaye, K.R. 1988 — Description of a genus and three deep water species of fishes (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa (Copeia 1988(2):441–449; original description of genus and A. mentale)
  6. The ETYFish Project — Cichlidae (Pseudocrenilabrinae): Alticorpus mentale etymology (mentum, chin)