Neolamprologus bifasciatus "Katete"
Katete — kah-TEH-teh (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 Neolamprologus bifasciatus account →Specific to Katete
- 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 Neolamprologus bifasciatus.
The Katete population
Neolamprologus bifasciatus "Katete" is the Katete population of Neolamprologus bifasciatus, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the central part of the lake. It is the same species as Neolamprologus bifasciatus, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Katete fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Neolamprologus bifasciatus is a little-known lamprologine cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, living down at the dim margin where rocky reef gives way to open sand and mud, mostly between 100 and 150 ft (30-45 m). For decades it was written off as a solitary deep-water loner, but underwater video in the 2020s revealed something far more interesting: it is a cooperative breeder, with non-breeding subordinates that help guard the brood and tend the nest. That depth and that social system make it a genuine rarity in the aquarium trade rather than a tank staple.
Full Neolamprologus bifasciatus account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus bifasciatus "Katete"
- Neolamprologus bifasciatus — FishBase summary
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (species record, via FishBase/CAS)
- Satoh, Saeki & Kohda 2022 — Cooperative breeding in Neolamprologus bifasciatus (Ecology of Freshwater Fish 31:640-649)
- Cooperative breeding in N. bifasciatus — record (FAO AGRIS)
- O'Reilly et al. 2003 — Climate change decreases productivity of Lake Tanganyika (Nature; PubMed)