Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Astatotilapia burtoni

Astatotilapia burtoni "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 Astatotilapia burtoni 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 Astatotilapia burtoni.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.9 in15 cm standard length
Temperature68–77 °F20–25 °C
pH8.5–9alkaline
Depth0–16 ft0–5 m
DietOpportunistic omnivore (generalist)
BreedingMaternal (ovophilic) mouthbroodera few dozen eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesStrong. Dominant males vivid blue/yellow with eye-bar, opercular spot, red shoulder patch and orange anal-fin egg-spots; subordinate males drab and female-like; females cryptic, brooding females with a swollen throat pouch. Male dominance coloration is reversible within minutes of a status change.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Ruzizi River population

Astatotilapia burtoni "Ruzizi River" is the Ruzizi River population of Astatotilapia burtoni, 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 Astatotilapia burtoni, 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

Astatotilapia burtoni, often called Burton's mouthbrooder, is a small, adaptable haplochromine cichlid of Lake Tanganyika's shallow margins and the rivers that feed it. Though modest in size and easily overlooked beside the lake's flashier rock-dwellers, it is one of the most intensively studied fish on Earth: its males flip between a brilliant, territorial state and a drab, subordinate one within minutes of a social change, making it a workhorse model for the neuroscience of behavior. For the aquarist, that same plasticity translates to a hardy, endlessly watchable, but genuinely combative little fish.

Full Astatotilapia burtoni account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Astatotilapia burtoni "Ruzizi River"
  2. Astatotilapia burtoni — Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (CAS)
  3. Astatotilapia burtoni summary — FishBase
  4. Family CICHLIDAE: Subfamily PSEUDOCRENILABRINAE (a-g) — The ETYFish Project (burtoni etymology)
  5. Model System: Astatotilapia burtoni — Maruska Lab, LSU
  6. Maruska & Fernald — Astatotilapia burtoni: a model system for analyzing the neurobiology of behavior