Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus walteri

Neolamprologus walteri "Cape Bangwe"

Cape Bangwe — KAYP BAHN-gweh (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 walteri account →

Specific to Cape Bangwe

  • 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 walteri.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size2.2 in5.7 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth7–98 ft2–30 m
DietZooplankton and benthic invertebrates/detritus; picks plankton from the water column and sifts sediment off the substrate; trophic level ~3.4
BreedingCave spawner (substrate)~10–20 fry per spawning
Sexual dimorphismYesMales slightly larger (to ~57 mm SL) than females (to ~50 mm SL); sexes otherwise similar in coloration
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Cape Bangwe population

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

Colour reference: living Cape Bangwe fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Neolamprologus walteri is a small, dark, rock-dwelling cichlid endemic to the northeastern shores of Lake Tanganyika, where it is one of the most abundant fish in the shallow littoral around Kigoma. Described only in 2007, it had circulated in the aquarium trade under the name "walteri" for two decades before it had a formal scientific identity, and it belongs to the cluster of "Princess" cichlids — alongside the famous fairy cichlid Neolamprologus brichardi — that share the lake's rubble slopes. What sets it apart is its extreme homebody habit: an individual rarely strays more than a couple of metres in its life, packing into dense colonies where dozens of fish may crowd a single square metre of stromatolite-crusted rock.

Full Neolamprologus walteri account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Neolamprologus walteri "Cape Bangwe"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Neolamprologus walteri (Verburg & Bills, 2007)
  3. FishBase — Neolamprologus walteri (Verburg & Bills, 2007)
  4. GBIF — Neolamprologus walteri (Plazi taxonomic treatment of the original description)
  5. GBIF Backbone — Neolamprologus walteri Verburg & Bills, 2007
  6. Verburg, P. & Bills, R. (2007) — Two new cichlid species Neolamprologus (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Tanganyika, East Africa. Zootaxa 1612:25–44