Astatoreochromis straeleni "Uvinza, Malagarasi River"

Uvinza, Malagarasi Riveroo-VEEN-zah mah-lah-gah-RAH-see 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 Uvinza, Malagarasi 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 Uvinza, Malagarasi River population

Astatoreochromis straeleni "Uvinza, Malagarasi River" is the Uvinza, Malagarasi River population of Astatoreochromis straeleni, a geographic colour form from Lake Tanganyika in Lake Tanganyika 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 Uvinza, Malagarasi 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 "Uvinza, Malagarasi 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