Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Alticorpus sp. "Bicuspid Bis"

Alticorpus sp. "Bicuspid Bis" "Senga Bay"

Senga Bay — SEHN-gah BAY (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 sp. "Bicuspid Bis" account →

Specific to Senga Bay

  • 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 sp. "Bicuspid Bis".

CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6 in15 cm total length
Temperature72–79 °F22–26 °C
pH7.7–8.6alkaline
Depth66–328 ft20–100 m
DietBenthic micro-invertivore of soft sand/mud bottoms, located via enlarged cranial sensory pores (genus-typical Alticorpus)
Breedingmaternal mouthbrooder (inferred from genus/flock)not documented for this form; deep-water congeners (e.g. Alticorpus macrocleithrum) carry moderate clutches, roughly a hundred to a few hundred eggs
Sexual dimorphismMinimalNo sexual dimorphism documented - consistent with a fish presumed to breed in dark, deep water, as in other Alticorpus.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Senga Bay population

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

Colour reference: living Senga Bay fish at malawi.si →

About the species

Alticorpus sp. "Bicuspid Bis" is an undescribed deep-water cichlid from Lake Malawi, recorded from the Senga Bay area and recognised in trawl-survey and hobby-oriented references by its bicuspid outer-jaw teeth - one of several working characters used to sort deep Alticorpus material that cannot be confidently matched to a described species. Like the rest of its genus it carries the enlarged cranial sensory pores that let deep-lake haplochromines hunt by feel rather than sight, in water far below the sunlit reefs most aquarists know. It is a fish of the trawl net and the field database, not the collector's bucket, and no authority, year, or conservation status should be attached to it.

Full Alticorpus sp. "Bicuspid Bis" account →

Sources

  1. malawi.si — Alticorpus sp. "Bicuspid Bis" "Senga Bay"
  2. malawi.si — Alticorpus species and locality-form database (Konings-based; distribution, biotope)
  3. Cichlid Room Companion — Alticorpus genus overview (deep-water sand/mud/intermediate cichlids of Lake Malawi)
  4. 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 Alticorpus)
  5. Konings, A. — Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press; foremost Malawi field authority, incl. deep-water Alticorpus forms)