Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Bathybates vittatus

Bathybates vittatus "Chituta Bay"

Chituta Bay — chee-TOO-tah BAY (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 vittatus account →

Specific to Chituta Bay

  • 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 vittatus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size16.5 in42 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth0–656 ft0–200 m
DietPiscivore; preys chiefly on bottom-associated cichlids and on the lake's endemic clupeid sardines.
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (genus-typical; undocumented for this species)Undocumented; genus-typical (tens of eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesDocumentation is sparse for this rarely caught deepwater species, but Bathybates are sexually dimorphic, with males developing more intense banding/spotting and breeding coloration than females.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chituta Bay population

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

Colour reference: living Chituta Bay fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Bathybates vittatus is a large, deep-bodied predatory cichlid found only in Lake Tanganyika, where it patrols the dim transition between the rocky floor and the open pelagic zone. At up to about 16.5 in (42 cm) it is the biggest of the seven Bathybates, a genus of silver, dark-barred fish-hunters that fill the lake's offshore deep water rather than its colorful shallow reefs. Known to local fishers as the bangabanga, it is hauled up incidentally in the lake's sardine nets, almost never kept in aquariums, and still one of the more poorly understood members of Tanganyika's celebrated cichlid flock.

Full Bathybates vittatus account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Bathybates vittatus "Chituta Bay"
  2. Bathybates vittatus, Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (species record)
  3. Bathybates vittatus summary page, FishBase
  4. Bathybates fasciatus, GBIF (genus occurrence reference)
  5. Kirchberger, Sefc, Sturmbauer & Koblmüller 2012, Evolutionary History of Lake Tanganyika's Predatory Deepwater Cichlids, Int. J. Evolutionary Biology
  6. O'Reilly et al. 2003, Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika, Nature 424:766-768