Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus "Mtoto"Umunzamba
Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus (Cape Chaitika, Cape Nangu, Kambwimba, Kasanga, Katabe Bay, Kipili, Mtoto, Zambia)
Mtoto — m-TOH-toh (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 Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus account →Specific to Mtoto
- 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 Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus.
The Mtoto population
Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus "Mtoto" is the Mtoto population of Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus, a geographic colour form from the Democratic Republic of the Congo coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mtoto fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus is a slender, pike-shaped predatory cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, where it hovers a body-length above the sand on the lake's intermediate shores and ambushes smaller fish. Built long and lean — among the most attenuated of the rift's lamprologines, a trait its name records — it is a substrate-spawning piscivore that pairs up to raise its fry with both parents standing guard. Common in the wild and modestly popular in the hobby, it rewards keepers who can give a breeding pair room and accept that, once it spawns, it tolerates almost nothing else in the tank.
Full Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus "Mtoto"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — species record for Lamprologus/Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus
- FishBase — Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus summary
- GBIF — Lepidiolamprologus mimicus (sympatric congener record citing L. attenuatus)
- Schelly, Takahashi, Bills & Hori (2007) — first case of aggressive mimicry in Lepidiolamprologus, Zootaxa (genus context)
- Evolutionary history of the Lake Tanganyika cichlid tribe Lamprologini (mtDNA/nuclear DNA) — PMC
- IUCN Red List — Lepidiolamprologus attenuatus "Mtoto"