Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Cyprichromis leptosoma

Cyprichromis leptosoma "Sibwesa"

Sibwesa — see-BWEH-sah (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 Cyprichromis leptosoma account →

Specific to Sibwesa

  • 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 Cyprichromis leptosoma.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.9 in10 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH7.8–9alkaline
Depth16–98 ft5–30 m
DietZooplanktivore; picks small crustaceans and other zooplankton from the water column using a highly protrusible mouth; will also take small shelled prey
Breedingopen-water maternal mouthbrooder9–20 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales develop vivid blues and yellows with bright pelvic-fin and tail markings (often polychromatic within a population); females are plain silvery-brown
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Sibwesa population

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

Colour reference: living Sibwesa fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Cyprichromis leptosoma is a slender, schooling cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, one of the so-called "sardine cichlids" that abandoned the rift lake's rocky bottom for the open water just above it. It is a maternal mouthbrooder that spawns mid-column rather than on a surface: a female releases an egg into open water, catches it in her mouth, and incubates the brood there for roughly three weeks. Males hold three-dimensional territories in the water column and display in glowing blues and yellows, while drab females shoal in their thousands above the reef.

Full Cyprichromis leptosoma account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Cyprichromis leptosoma "Sibwesa"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (Fricke, Eschmeyer & Van der Laan, eds.) — California Academy of Sciences
  3. FishBase — Cyprichromis leptosoma (Boulenger, 1898)
  4. Brandstätter, Salzburger & Sturmbauer (2005) — Mitochondrial phylogeny of the Cyprichromini, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34:382-391
  5. Anderson et al. (2016) — Same school, different conduct: rates of multiple paternity in Cyprichromis spp., Ecology and Evolution 6:37-45