Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Callochromis melanostigma

Callochromis melanostigma "Uvira"

Uvira — oo-VEE-rah (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 melanostigma account →

Specific to Uvira

  • 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 melanostigma.

IUCNNEAR THREATENED · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.9 in15 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth3–33 ft1–10 m
DietSand-sifting invertivore
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder~25–60 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesPronounced: breeding males develop bright red, yellow and green nuptial color with a blue-black throat and gold eyebrow markings; females and non-breeding males remain plain silvery-grey.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Uvira population

Callochromis melanostigma "Uvira" is the Uvira population of Callochromis melanostigma, a geographic colour form from the Democratic Republic of the Congo coast of Lake Tanganyika in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Callochromis melanostigma, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Uvira fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Callochromis melanostigma is a sand-sifting cichlid found only along the northern shores of Lake Tanganyika, where breeding males trade their workaday silver for a parrot-bright wash of red, gold and green. It belongs to the Ectodini, the lake's flock of open-sand specialists, and it earns a living the way a Geophagus does — taking mouthfuls of sediment and straining out the buried invertebrates. The striking part of its story is recent and sobering: long lumped in with its sister species Callochromis macrops, this narrowly distributed northern fish was reassessed as Near Threatened in 2025, and field workers now suspect it has become scarce enough that males may no longer gather to build their courtship leks.

Full Callochromis melanostigma account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Callochromis melanostigma "Uvira"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Callochromis melanostigma (Boulenger, 1906)
  3. FishBase — Callochromis melanostigma summary
  4. GBIF — Fishes of Lake Tanganyika occurrence dataset (Callochromis records)
  5. Morita et al. 2014 — Bower-building behaviour and sperm competition in Tanganyikan cichlids (J. Evolutionary Biology) — Ectodine egg-spots note
  6. Oral fertilization and anal-fin egg dummies in mouthbrooding cichlids (review/abstract, ResearchGate)