Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus leloupi

Neolamprologus leloupi "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 Neolamprologus leloupi 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 Neolamprologus leloupi.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size2.8 in7 cm total length
Temperature73–81 °F23–27 °C
pH7.4–8.4alkaline
Depth7–115 ft2–35 m
DietZooplankton and small invertebrates; feeds both by picking off the substrate and by schooling a metre or two above the bottom to graze drifting zooplankton
BreedingCave-spawning substrate brooder75–150 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesWeak; males average slightly larger than females, no reliable colour or fin-shape difference
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Cape Tembwe population

Neolamprologus leloupi "Cape Tembwe" is the Cape Tembwe population of Neolamprologus leloupi, 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 Neolamprologus leloupi, 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

Neolamprologus leloupi is a small, sand-beige cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, easily lost in the shadow of its near-twin Neolamprologus caudopunctatus and routinely confused by name with the unrelated lemon cichlid, Neolamprologus leleupi. It lives in the intermediate sand-and-rock zone of the lake's central coasts, hovering in loose schools a metre or two off the bottom to pick zooplankton from open water. Plain at a glance, it carries one quietly distinctive feature: a black-edged caudal fin, often with a white inner band, that is the single most reliable way to tell it apart from its look-alikes.

Full Neolamprologus leloupi account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus leloupi "Cape Tembwe"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Lamprologus leloupi Poll 1948 (valid as Neolamprologus leloupi)
  3. FishBase — Neolamprologus leloupi (Poll, 1948)
  4. GBIF — Neolamprologus leloupi (Poll, 1948)
  5. Poll, M. 1948. Descriptions de Cichlidae nouveaux recueillis par la mission hydrobiologique belge au Lac Tanganika — original description
  6. Maréchal & Poll 1991, Neolamprologus in Check-list of the Freshwater Fishes of Africa (CLOFFA IV)