Hemibates stenosoma "Chituta Bay"
Hemibates stenosoma (Chituta Bay, Isanga Bay)
Chituta Bay — chee-TOO-tah BAY (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 Hemibates stenosoma account →Specific to Chituta Bay
- 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 Hemibates stenosoma.
The Chituta Bay population
Hemibates stenosoma "Chituta Bay" is the Chituta Bay population of Hemibates stenosoma, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Hemibates stenosoma, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Chituta Bay fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Hemibates stenosoma is a silver, dark-blotched predatory cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, living far below the reef in the cold, dim benthic zone where most aquarists never see it. It is one of the most abundant fishes on the lake's deep southern shelves, hunting smaller fish and shrimp over mud and silt at depths where light fails and oxygen runs thin. Long treated as the sole member of its genus, it gained a sibling in 2017 when a second species was split off, and its muted, monochrome coloration is itself an adaptation to a world without color.
Full Hemibates stenosoma account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Hemibates stenosoma "Chituta Bay"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Hemibates stenosoma
- FishBase — Hemibates stenosoma summary
- FishBase — Tanganyika species ecology list
- Schedel & Schliewen (2017), Hemibates koningsi spec. nov., Zootaxa 4312(1):92–112
- Kirchberger, Sefc, Sturmbauer & Koblmüller (2012), Evolutionary history of Lake Tanganyika's predatory deepwater cichlids, Int. J. Evol. Biol.
- IUCN Red List — Hemibates stenosoma "Chituta Bay"