Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus olivaceous

Neolamprologus olivaceous "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 olivaceous 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 olivaceous.

IUCNDATA DEFICIENT · 2006
DDnot on the EX–LC scale
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.9 in10 cm total length
Temperature73–81 °F23–27 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth13–66 ft4–20 m
DietCarnivore; picks small invertebrates (insect larvae, copepods) from rock biofilm and gleans zooplankton from the water column
BreedingSubstrate spawner (cave)up to 150 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesWeak; sexes look alike, adult males average slightly larger than females
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Cape Tembwe population

Neolamprologus olivaceous "Cape Tembwe" is the Cape Tembwe population of Neolamprologus olivaceous, 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 olivaceous, 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 olivaceous is a small, olive-toned lamprologine cichlid from the rocky shallows of Lake Tanganyika's western, Congolese coast. Described by collector Pierre Brichard in 1989, it belongs to the famous "brichardi/pulcher" complex of cooperative breeders, and its status as a distinct species has been argued over ever since — several leading workers consider it nothing more than a regional form of the daffodil cichlid, Neolamprologus pulcher. Whatever name wins in the end, the fish itself is a recognizable, colony-forming rock dweller whose helpers defend a shared territory with a ferocity out of all proportion to its size.

Full Neolamprologus olivaceous account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus olivaceous "Cape Tembwe"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Neolamprologus olivaceous (Brichard 1989)
  3. FishBase: Neolamprologus olivaceous summary page
  4. African Diving blog: Neolamprologus pulcher and the analogy of N. brichardi (cooperative breeding, complex taxonomy)
  5. O'Reilly et al. 2003, Nature: Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika
  6. FishBase: Neolamprologus olivaceous Catalog of Fishes species cross-reference (synonymy with N. pulcher per Konings)