Taxonomy & naming
This is a trade and database label for an undescribed fish. "sp." and the quotation marks mark a working name, so the form has no valid binomial, authority or year. The name implies a link to Altolamprologus compressiceps, but how close that link is, and whether the shell form is a population of that species or a separate one, is not established in the sources used here.
tanganyika.si lists the form with these localities: Cameron Bay, Cape Chipimbi, Cape Kachese, Chimba and Sumbu, and one entry with unknown locality. A store listing seen by the atlas offers a Sumbu fish under the same name.
Morphology
Nothing specific to this form was available on body shape, colour or adult size, and none is claimed. Genus context from the atlas's A. compressiceps article: the genus is laterally compressed with a tall, deep body, and the atlas notes strong size difference between the sexes in that species, with shell-associated forms being the smaller ones.
Habitat
All five named localities are on the southern Zambian shore of Lake Tanganyika, in the Cameron Bay to Sumbu stretch; Cape Chipimbi is listed without coordinates in the atlas data. The "shell" in the name refers to the empty snail shells (Neothauma and related gastropods) that litter parts of the lake floor, and the form is understood by the hobby to use them as shelter. That habit is a hobby-level description; no field study of this population was found.
Depth and water chemistry for the form are not recorded. Lake Tanganyika as a whole is alkaline and hard.
Feeding
Not documented for this form. Genus-wide, Altolamprologus are predators that ambush small fish and invertebrates from crevices. No stomach-content data exist for the shell form in the sources used.
Mating
Not documented for this form.
Breeding
Not documented for this form. The atlas's A. compressiceps article describes cave- and shell-spawning with female-guarded clutches, but breeding of the shell form itself has not been described.
In the aquarium
The form reaches the hobby in small numbers; one specialist store has listed a Sumbu fish under this name. Husbandry data specific to it were not found. Shell-dwelling Tanganyikans are generally kept in groups on sand with plenty of empty shells and hard alkaline water, and Altolamprologus will eat fish small enough to swallow.
Conservation
An undescribed form has no IUCN assessment. Its recorded range is a short stretch of the southern shore, but no population data were found for it.