Eretmodus marksmithi "Cape Tembwe"
Cape Tembwe — KAYP TEHM-bweh (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 Eretmodus marksmithi account →Specific to Cape Tembwe
- 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 Eretmodus marksmithi.
The Cape Tembwe population
Eretmodus marksmithi "Cape Tembwe" is the Cape Tembwe population of Eretmodus marksmithi, a geographic colour form from the Democratic Republic of the Congo coast of Lake Tanganyika in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Eretmodus marksmithi, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Cape Tembwe fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Eretmodus marksmithi is a small, banded goby cichlid endemic to the northern half of Lake Tanganyika, where it hops across wave-battered rocks in the first couple of meters of water and rasps a living off the algal film. It is one of the lake's "goby cichlids" — fish that have traded a working swim bladder for the ability to cling to the bottom in pounding surf. Long shipped to aquarists as the northern form of Eretmodus cyanostictus, it was only formally separated and named in 2012, honoring the American cichlid author and photographer Mark Smith.
Full Eretmodus marksmithi account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Eretmodus marksmithi "Cape Tembwe"
- FishBase: Eretmodus marksmithi
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (California Academy of Sciences)
- Morley & Balshine 2003: Reproductive biology of Eretmodus cyanostictus (Env. Biol. Fishes)
- Grüter & Taborsky 2004: Mate Tactics, monogamy & biparental care in Eretmodus cyanostictus (PDF)
- Taylor et al. 2003: Genetic monogamy and female-biased dispersal in Eretmodus cyanostictus (Molecular Ecology / PubMed)