Baileychromis centropomoides "Kansombo Banks"
Baileychromis centropomoides (Isanga, Kansombo Banks, Mpulungu market)
Kansombo Banks — kahn-SOHM-boh BAHNKS (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 Baileychromis centropomoides account →Specific to Kansombo Banks
- 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 Baileychromis centropomoides.
The Kansombo Banks population
Baileychromis centropomoides "Kansombo Banks" is the Kansombo Banks population of Baileychromis centropomoides, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Baileychromis centropomoides, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Kansombo Banks fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Baileychromis centropomoides is a deep-water cichlid found only in Lake Tanganyika, and one of the least-seen fish in the entire lake. Pulled up from 130–330 ft over soft mud, it carries a long, broadly flattened snook-like snout and trailing dorsal spines unlike any other Tanganyikan cichlid. Ad Konings has gone so far as to call it possibly 'the rarest Tanganyika cichlid' — a reputation that owes as much to where it lives as to how scarce it truly is.
Full Baileychromis centropomoides account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Baileychromis centropomoides "Kansombo Banks"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Baileychromis centropomoides (CAS)
- FishBase — Baileychromis centropomoides summary
- FishBase — Baileychromis centropomoides field guide (depth/diagnosis)
- Bailey & Stewart 1977 — Cichlid fishes from Lake Tanganyika (orig. description, via CRC)
- Biodiversity Data Journal 2024 — African cichlid morphology/taxonomy (Limnochromini, Baileychromis)
- IUCN Red List — Baileychromis centropomoides "Kansombo Banks"