Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Lepidiolamprologus kamambae

Lepidiolamprologus kamambae "Kamamba Island"

Kamamba Island — kah-MAHM-bah EYE-land (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 kamambae account →

Specific to Kamamba Island

  • 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 kamambae.

IUCNENDANGERED · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7.9 in20 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH8.5–9alkaline
Depth16–131 ft5–40 m
DietPiscivore; hunts juvenile cichlids and small fish over open sand, cruising approximately 0.5 m above the substrate
Breedingsubstrate spawnerundocumented in the wild; adhesive eggs deposited on hard surface in cave or crevice (inferred from congeners)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales expected to grow larger; no reliable external sex differences described — all type-series specimens were male
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Kamamba Island population

Lepidiolamprologus kamambae "Kamamba Island" is the Kamamba Island population of Lepidiolamprologus kamambae, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Lepidiolamprologus kamambae, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Kamamba Island fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Lepidiolamprologus kamambae is a slender, sand-dwelling predatory cichlid endemic to a tiny patch of Lake Tanganyika's southeastern Tanzanian shore. Described only in 2012, it is the pale, open-water twin of the better-known Lepidiolamprologus kendalli: where that fish ambushes prey among dark rocks, kamambae cruises a half-meter above white sand, its ghostly markings matched to the substrate it hunts over. Known from no more than a handful of small islands, it is one of the more range-restricted lamprologines in the lake and was assessed as Endangered in 2025.

Full Lepidiolamprologus kamambae account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Lepidiolamprologus kamambae "Kamamba Island"
  2. Kullander, Karlsson & Karlsson (2012). Lepidiolamprologus kamambae, a new species of cichlid fish from Lake Tanganyika. Zootaxa 3492:30–48 (open-access PDF)
  3. FishBase — Lepidiolamprologus kamambae summary
  4. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Lepidiolamprologus kamambae (species record)
  5. GBIF — Lepidiolamprologus kamambae (accepted taxon, usageKey 7908506)
  6. O'Reilly et al. (2003), Nature — climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika