Callochromis macrops "Kasanga"
Kasanga — kah-SAHN-gah (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 Callochromis macrops account →Specific to Kasanga
- 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 Callochromis macrops.
The Kasanga population
Callochromis macrops "Kasanga" is the Kasanga population of Callochromis macrops, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Callochromis macrops, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Kasanga fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Callochromis macrops, sometimes traded as the big-eyed mouthbrooder or "red macrops," is a sand-sifting cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, where it works the shallow, sediment-laden bottoms of sheltered bays. It belongs to the tribe Ectodini, the lake's flock of open-sand specialists, and feeds the way a Geophagus does — taking mouthfuls of sand and straining buried invertebrates through its gills. The real spectacle is the breeding male: he raises a turret-shaped sand bower, flushes into electric color, and courts passing females with a folded anal fin that mimics an egg, a sleight-of-hand that draws the female's mouth to where his milt is released. Beautiful and abundant in the wild, it is also one of the most quarrelsome sand cichlids a keeper can take on.
Full Callochromis macrops account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Callochromis macrops "Kasanga"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Callochromis macrops (Boulenger, 1898)
- FishBase — Callochromis macrops summary
- GBIF — Fishes of Lake Tanganyika (Callochromis occurrences)
- Morita et al. 2014 — Bower-building behaviour in Tanganyikan cichlids (J. Evolutionary Biology)
- Sefc 2011 — Mating and Parental Care in Lake Tanganyika's Cichlids (Int. J. Evolutionary Biology)