Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Benthochromis horii

Benthochromis horii "Kala Island"

Kala Island — KAH-lah EYE-land (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 Benthochromis horii account →

Specific to Kala Island

  • 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 Benthochromis horii.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.9 in15.1 cm standard length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth66–413 ft20–126 m
DietPicks micro-zooplankton from open water
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder3-5 eggs, rarely more than a dozen
Sexual dimorphismYesMales bluish-violet with three light-blue stripes and elongated pelvic and caudal filaments; females plain silvery-grey and unstriped.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Kala Island population

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

Colour reference: living Kala Island fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Benthochromis horii is a tall, deep-dwelling cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, a graceful planktivore that drifts in dim water tens of meters down where few aquarium fish ever go. Males are arresting—bluish-violet with three luminous light-blue stripes and trailing pelvic and caudal filaments—while females stay a plain silvery grey. Only described in 2008, it absorbed nearly all the fish the hobby had been calling "Benthochromis tricoti" for decades, and it breeds by an oddly delicate strategy: a clutch of just a handful of eggs carried in the mouth for two months or more.

Full Benthochromis horii account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Benthochromis horii "Kala Island"
  2. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Benthochromis horii
  3. FishBase — Benthochromis horii summary
  4. FishBase — Benthochromis horii field guide (size, environment)
  5. Takahashi, T. (2008). Description of a new cichlid fish species of the genus Benthochromis from Lake Tanganyika. J. Fish Biol. 72(3):603–613
  6. The taxonomic diversity of the cichlid fish fauna of Lake Tanganyika (ScienceDirect)