Neolamprologus timidus "Musi Point"

Musi PointMOO-see POYNT (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 timidus account →

Specific to Musi Point

  • 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 timidus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.1 in13 cm total length
Temperature75–82 °F24–28 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth7–131 ft2–40 m
DietSmall invertebrates (shrimps, aquatic insects) picked from rock crevices; opportunistically takes fish eggs
BreedingCave substrate spawner~30 fry per spawn
Sexual dimorphismYesFemales average ~15% smaller than males; no reliable color or fin-shape difference between sexes
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Musi Point population

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

Colour reference: living Musi Point fish at tanganyika.si

About the species

Neolamprologus timidus is a slender, dark-bodied Tanganyikan cichlid that spent decades hiding in plain sight, lumped together with its near-twin Neolamprologus furcifer until a 2014 study teased the two apart. Endemic to a roughly 100 km stretch of the Tanzanian coast, it lives pressed against the undersides of boulders and the back walls of deep caves, often hanging belly-to-rock with its head pointing down. Its name, Latin for "shy," captures exactly how it behaves: large-eyed, secretive, and gone in a flash the moment a diver draws near.

Full Neolamprologus timidus account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus timidus "Musi Point"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Neolamprologus timidus (Catalog of Fishes, CAS)
  3. Neolamprologus timidus - FishBase summary page
  4. Neolamprologus timidus - GBIF species record
  5. Cloffa / Faunafri: Neolamprologus timidus Kullander et al., 2014
  6. Kullander, Norén, Karlsson & Karlsson (2014): Description of Neolamprologus timidus, new species, and review of N. furcifer (Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters 24(4):301-328, PDF)