Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Petrochromis orthognathus

Petrochromis orthognathus "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 Petrochromis orthognathus 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 Petrochromis orthognathus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size6.5 in16.5 cm total length
Temperature75–79 °F24–26 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth7–33 ft2–10 m
DietHerbivore; aufwuchs grazer — scrapes algae, diatoms, and associated micro-organisms from sunlit rock surfaces (trophic level 2.0)
Breedingmaternal mouthbrooderSmall broods; fry large and well-developed at release (up to ~1.76 cm TL)
Sexual dimorphismYesDominant males show stronger coloration with blue fin edges and egg-spot ocelli; females and subordinate males are duller
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Cape Tembwe population

Petrochromis orthognathus "Cape Tembwe" is the Cape Tembwe population of Petrochromis orthognathus, 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 Petrochromis orthognathus, 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

Petrochromis orthognathus is a rock-grazing cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, one of the smaller and more slender members of a genus otherwise known for bull-jawed algae scrapers. Its name points to the very feature that sets it apart: jaws that meet squarely, edge to edge, rather than the over-bitten mouth most of its relatives use to comb film from stone. That "plain" jaw turns out to be telling. Molecular and morphological work places Petrochromis orthognathus near the base of the Petrochromis radiation, making it a living sketch of what the ancestral grazer may have looked like before the genus specialized into the lake's most efficient aufwuchs harvesters.

Full Petrochromis orthognathus account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Petrochromis orthognathus "Cape Tembwe"
  2. Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer) — Petrochromis orthognathus species record
  3. FishBase — Petrochromis orthognathus summary (SpecCode 8805)
  4. FishBase — Petrochromis identification / species list
  5. GBIF — Petrochromis orthognathus occurrence and taxonomy
  6. Mattsson, C. — A morphological and molecular analysis of the species diversity of the cichlid genus Petrochromis from Lake Tanganyika (bioRxiv preprint)