Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus pulcher

Neolamprologus pulcher "Isanga Bay"

Isanga Bay — ee-SAHN-gah BAY (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 pulcher account →

Specific to Isanga Bay

  • 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 pulcher.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.9 in10 cm total length
Temperature75–79 °F24–26 °C
pH7.3–8.5alkaline
Depth20–131 ft6–40 m
DietZooplankton and small invertebrates; open-water plankton-picker tethered to rock-pile territories.
BreedingCave substrate spawner.~20–60 adhesive eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesSubtle: males tend to be slightly larger and heavier-bodied with a marginally steeper forehead; sexes identified reliably by behavior at spawning time rather than morphology alone.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Isanga Bay population

Neolamprologus pulcher "Isanga Bay" is the Isanga Bay population of Neolamprologus pulcher, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Neolamprologus pulcher, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Isanga Bay fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Neolamprologus pulcher is a small, lyre-tailed cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika and one of the most intensively studied social vertebrates on Earth. It lives in extended family groups in which grown offspring stay home to help raise their younger siblings rather than disperse and breed, a system biologists call cooperative breeding. To aquarists it is better known under the trade names "daffodil" and "Princess of Zambia," and it carries a heavy taxonomic footnote: the popular "brichardi" is now regarded as the same species.

Full Neolamprologus pulcher account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus pulcher "Isanga Bay"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Neolamprologus pulcher (Trewavas & Poll, 1952)
  3. FishBase: Neolamprologus pulcher summary page
  4. Duftner et al. 2007, Parallel evolution of facial stripe patterns in the N. brichardi/pulcher complex (Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 45:706-715) — reported via Practical Fishkeeping
  5. Brouwer, Heg & Taborsky 2005, Experimental evidence for helper effects in a cooperatively breeding cichlid (Behavioral Ecology 16:667-673)
  6. Heg et al., Helpers in a cooperatively breeding cichlid stay and pay or disperse and breed (PMC)