Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Bathybates ferox

Bathybates ferox "Kigoma"

Kigoma — kee-GOH-mah (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 Bathybates ferox account →

Specific to Kigoma

  • 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 Bathybates ferox.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size15.2 in38.5 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth0–656 ft0–200 m
DietPiscivore — small benthic cichlids (e.g. sand-dwelling Ectodini such as Xenotilapia) and clupeid sardines (Stolothrissa, Limnothrissa); strikes live, moving prey.
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderUp to ~80 fry, released at roughly 17 mm after about five weeks
Sexual dimorphismYesMature males show blue iridescence on the flanks and unpaired fins; females are plainer with two horizontal rows of light brownish spots on the upper body and largely unmarked fins.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Kigoma population

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

Colour reference: living Kigoma fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Bathybates ferox is a large, silver-flanked predatory cichlid found nowhere on Earth but Lake Tanganyika, where it patrols open water over sandy slopes hunting smaller fish. One of seven members of the deepwater genus Bathybates, it is the heaviest-bodied of the benthic hunters in the group, reaching close to 15 inches and built for the dim, blue-lit middle waters of the lake. Common in the catch and assessed by the IUCN as Least Concern, it is nonetheless a fish of a lake under real and measurable strain.

Full Bathybates ferox account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Bathybates ferox "Kigoma"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Bathybates ferox (species record)
  3. FishBase — Bathybates ferox summary
  4. GBIF — Bathybates ferox Boulenger, 1898
  5. Kirchberger et al. 2012 — Evolutionary History of Lake Tanganyika's Predatory Deepwater Cichlids (Int. J. Evol. Biol.)
  6. Koblmüller et al. 2005 — Ancient Divergence in Bathypelagic Lake Tanganyika Deepwater Cichlids: phylogeny of the Bathybatini (J. Mol. Evol.)