Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Bathybates hornii

Bathybates hornii "Kipili"

Kipili — kee-PEE-lee (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 hornii account →

Specific to Kipili

  • 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 hornii.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size10.7 in27.2 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth0–656 ft0–200 m
DietPiscivore — open-water predator feeding mainly on endemic Tanganyika clupeids (Stolothrissa tanganicae, Limnothrissa miodon); exact diet undocumented
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderA few dozen eggs (genus-typical estimate; undocumented for this species)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales display species-specific dark bars, stripes, and spots on a silver flank and carry anal-fin egg-spots; brooding females are plainer
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Kipili population

Bathybates hornii "Kipili" is the Kipili population of Bathybates hornii, 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 Bathybates hornii, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Kipili fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Bathybates hornii is a silvery, deep-bodied predatory cichlid found only in Lake Tanganyika, one of seven species in a small genus of open-water hunters that look almost nothing like the colorful rock-dwellers most people picture when they hear "African cichlid." Local fishers around the lake know it as bangabanga or mbanga, and pull it up only occasionally — usually as bycatch in the sardine nets it haunts. It spends the day in deep water and drifts shoreward at night, and despite being known to science since 1911 it remains one of the least-studied members of its genus, with even its exact diet still debated.

Full Bathybates hornii account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Bathybates hornii "Kipili"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Bathybates hornii (Steindachner 1911)
  3. FishBase — Bathybates hornii summary
  4. FishBase — Bathybates hornii FAO areas (endemic, Lake Tanganyika)
  5. Koblmüller et al. — Evolutionary History of Lake Tanganyika's Predatory Deepwater Cichlids (Bathybatini)
  6. O'Reilly et al. 2003 — Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika (Nature)