Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Cyprichromis microlepidotus

Cyprichromis microlepidotus "Ubwari"

Ubwari — oo-BWAH-ree (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 microlepidotus account →

Specific to Ubwari

  • 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 microlepidotus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.3 in11 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH7.8–9alkaline
Depth16–131 ft5–40 m
Dietzooplankton picker in open midwater
Breedingopen-water maternal mouthbroodersmall, ~5–20 large eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesmales brightly coloured, females plain silvery
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Ubwari population

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

Colour reference: living Ubwari fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Cyprichromis microlepidotus is a slender, open-water cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, one of a small tribe of zooplankton-grazing fish that abandoned the lake's crowded rocky shoreline for the calmer mid-water above it. Described by Max Poll in 1956 and named for its unusually fine scales, it is a maternal mouthbrooder whose males defend invisible three-dimensional territories in open water and shift through yellow, blue, and inky-black color states as they court. Hobbyists call it the smallscale or "micro" Cyprichromis; in a tank it is a placid, jewel-toned shoaler that tries the patience of breeders and the steadiness of anyone's water chemistry.

Full Cyprichromis microlepidotus account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Cyprichromis microlepidotus "Ubwari"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Cyprichromis microlepidotus (Poll, 1956)
  3. FishBase — Cyprichromis microlepidotus summary
  4. FishBase — Cyprichromis coloratus (scale-count comparison)
  5. GBIF — Cyprichromis microlepidotus (Poll, 1956), taxon key 2372095
  6. Duftner et al. (2005), Mitochondrial phylogeny of the Cyprichromini (Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.)