Altolamprologus compressiceps "Bilila (Kavala) Island"Compressiceps
Altolamprologus compressiceps (Bemba, Bilila (Kavala) Island, Bulu Point, Cape Caramba, Cape Chaitika, Cape Kabogo, Cape Kabwe Nsolo, Cape Kachese, Cape Nambeyeye, Cape Nangu, Chimba, Chituta Bay, Gombe NP, Halembe, Ikola, Isanga Bay, Jakobsen's Beach, Kabwe, Kafyoko Point, Kagunga, Kalambo Lodge, Kalubale, Kambwimba, Kantalamba, Karago, Karilani Island, Kasakalawe, Kasanga, Katondo Point, Katoto, Kekese, Kerenge Island, Kikoti, Kiku, Kilima, Kipili, Kiriza, Kitumba, Kombe, Luagala Point, Lubugwe Bay, Lufungu Bay, Lwasase Point, Lyamembe, Mahale NP, Maswa, Mbita Island, Mboko Island, Mkangazi, Molwe, Mpulungu, Msalaba, Mtosi, Mucansi, Mulyma, Musofwe Bay, Mutondwe Island, Muzi, Mwaka, Cape Mpimbwe, Mwela, Nausingili Island, Nkondwe Island, Nkwasi Point, Nondwa Point, Polombwe Bay, Rubumba, Siyeswe Bay, Talama, Tembwe (Deux), Udachi, Ulwile Island, Wampembe, Zaire Gold)
Bilila (Kavala) Island — bee-LEE-lah kah-VAH-lah EYE-land (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 Altolamprologus compressiceps account →Specific to Bilila (Kavala) Island
- 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 Altolamprologus compressiceps.
The Bilila (Kavala) Island population
Altolamprologus compressiceps "Bilila (Kavala) Island" is the Bilila (Kavala) Island population of Altolamprologus compressiceps, a geographic colour form from the Democratic Republic of the Congo coast of Lake Tanganyika in the northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Altolamprologus compressiceps, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Bilila (Kavala) Island fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Altolamprologus compressiceps is a small, slab-sided predator endemic to Lake Tanganyika, and the razor-thin body that gives it its name is also its main hunting tool. That extreme side-to-side flattening lets it slip edgewise into rock crevices to pluck out shrimp, and it comes armored in unusually tough scales that shrug off the lake's scale-biting cichlids. It is an ambush specialist — slow-growing, patient, and quietly predatory, it holds still and waits rather than chases. Hobbyists have kept a steady following for it, sold in dozens of wild colour forms named for stretches of Tanganyika shoreline, and it rewards a keeper who treats it as the crevice hunter it is.
Full Altolamprologus compressiceps account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Altolamprologus compressiceps "Bilila (Kavala) Island"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Altolamprologus compressiceps (Boulenger 1898)
- FishBase: Altolamprologus compressiceps (Boulenger, 1898)
- GBIF: Altolamprologus compressiceps occurrence records
- Konings, A. — Tanganyika Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press): Altolamprologus
- Yuma, Narita, Hori & Kondo (1998): Food resources of shrimp-eating cichlid fishes in Lake Tanganyika, Environmental Biology of Fishes 52:371-378
- IUCN Red List — Altolamprologus compressiceps "Bilila (Kavala) Island"