Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus niger

Neolamprologus niger "Luhanga"

Luhanga — loo-HAHN-gah (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 niger account →

Specific to Luhanga

  • 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 niger.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.5 in9 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth20–131 ft6–40 m
DietCarnivore; feeds on invertebrates including insect larvae, small crustaceans, and possibly mollusks picked from rock surfaces and crevices
BreedingCave/crevice substrate spawnerVery small; anecdotal hobbyist reports of only a few eggs per spawn
Sexual dimorphismYesMales grow to ~9 cm TL, females to ~5 cm TL; no marked sexual dichromatism beyond the size difference
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Luhanga population

Neolamprologus niger "Luhanga" is the Luhanga population of Neolamprologus niger, a geographic colour form from the Democratic Republic of the Congo coast of Lake Tanganyika in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Neolamprologus niger, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Luhanga fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Neolamprologus niger is a small, dark, retiring cichlid endemic to the northern third of Lake Tanganyika, where it threads its days through the cracks of sediment-dusted rock. It is one of the lake's true shadow-dwellers: a recent survey of activity rhythms across sixty Tanganyikan cichlids singled it out as a genuinely nocturnal species, and divers and collectors alike describe it as so secretive that it is rarely seen even where it is common. Sooty-black and rarely longer than a finger, it trades the gaudy color of its rockfish neighbors for a life spent mostly out of sight.

Full Neolamprologus niger account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus niger "Luhanga"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Neolamprologus niger (Poll, 1956)
  3. FishBase — Neolamprologus niger (Poll, 1956)
  4. GBIF — Neolamprologus niger (Poll, 1956)
  5. Maréchal & Poll (1991) — Neolamprologus, in Check-list of the Freshwater Fishes of Africa (CLOFFA IV), vol. 4: 274–294
  6. Poll (1956) — Poissons Cichlidae, Exploration Hydrobiologique du Lac Tanganika (1946–1947), 3(5B) (original description)