Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus pectoralis

Neolamprologus pectoralis "Tembwe (Deux)"

Tembwe (Deux) — TEHM-bweh DEH-oox (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 pectoralis account →

Specific to Tembwe (Deux)

  • 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 pectoralis.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.5 in14 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth49–148 ft15–45 m
DietBenthic invertebrates including crustaceans, insect larvae, copepods, and snail fragments; incidental plant material
BreedingCave spawner (substrate spawner)~50–100 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales slightly larger than females; no dramatic color difference between sexes
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Tembwe (Deux) population

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

Colour reference: living Tembwe (Deux) fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Neolamprologus pectoralis is a rarely seen Lake Tanganyika cichlid known only from a short stretch of the lake's southwestern, Congolese shore. It is a fish of the intermediate zone — the in-between country where sand meets piled rock — and it hunts by gliding so close to the stone that its belly rides only millimeters above the substrate, tracing every contour with an unusually sensitive lateral line. Named for its conspicuously large pectoral fins, it is a fish few hobbyists ever keep and fewer still breed; the German aquarist Holger Zinke summed it up bluntly as "expensive, rare, aggressive, and not very productive."

Full Neolamprologus pectoralis account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus pectoralis "Tembwe (Deux)"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Neolamprologus pectoralis Büscher, 1991 (type locality, original description, valid name)
  3. FishBase — Neolamprologus pectoralis (Büscher, 1991)
  4. Büscher, H.H. (1991) — Ein neuer Tanganjikasee-Cichlide aus Zaire. Neolamprologus pectoralis n. sp., Die Aquarien- und Terrarien-Zeitschrift (DATZ) 44(12):788-792
  5. Konings, A. (1998/2015) — Tanganyika Cichlids in their Natural Habitat (Cichlid Press), as cited by FishBase/IUCN for habitat, locomotion, lateral line, diet
  6. O'Reilly et al. (2003) — Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika, Nature 424:766-768