Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Astatoreochromis straeleni

Astatoreochromis straeleni "Ruzizi River"

Ruzizi River — roo-ZEE-zee RIV-er (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 Astatoreochromis straeleni account →

Specific to Ruzizi River

  • 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 Astatoreochromis straeleni.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.1 in13 cm standard length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth0–7 ft0–2 m
DietDurophagous omnivore (snail-crusher)
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderNot counted for straeleni; genus-typical small mouthbrooder clutch (tens of large ~1.9-2.6 mm eggs; FishBase models fecundity <1000)
Sexual dimorphismMinimalWeak — both sexes carry orange-yellow anal egg-spots (smaller in females) and differ little in colour or finnage; resting fish are hard to sex by eye.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Ruzizi River population

Astatoreochromis straeleni "Ruzizi River" is the Ruzizi River population of Astatoreochromis straeleni, a geographic colour form from the Burundi coast of Lake Tanganyika in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Astatoreochromis straeleni, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Ruzizi River fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Astatoreochromis straeleni, the bluelip haplo, is a stout, snail-eating haplochromine endemic to the Lake Tanganyika basin — but one that mostly turns its back on the famous lake itself. It is a creature of the muddy swamps, vegetated river margins and tributary mouths feeding the rift, only occasionally straying into Tanganyika's open water. Sober brown-and-orange with a flash of iridescent blue across the lower lip, it is a riverine specialist hiding inside one of the world's great lacustrine cichlid radiations, and a fish almost never seen in the hobby.

Full Astatoreochromis straeleni account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Astatoreochromis straeleni "Ruzizi River"
  2. Astatoreochromis straeleni — FishBase species summary
  3. Astatoreochromis alluaudi — FishBase species summary (diagnostic comparison)
  4. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — straeleni (Poll 1944), type locality Lukuga R. near Kalemie
  5. The ETYFish Project — Pseudocrenilabrinae: Astatoreochromis & straeleni etymology
  6. Banyankimbona, Vreven & Snoeks (2013), A revision of the genus Astatoreochromis — European Journal of Taxonomy 39