Plecodus straeleni "Chituta Bay"
Chituta Bay — chee-TOO-tah 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 the base species account →Specific to Chituta 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 the base species.
IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
EXEWCRENVUNTLC
CARESNOT LISTED
EWCRENVUNTnot on the priority list
Scientific size5.1 in13 cm standard length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth10–131 ft3–40 m
DietLepidophage (scale-eater)
BreedingMaternal/biparental mouthbrooderup to ~100 eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesStrongly dichromatic: displaying males are white-to-blue with ~5 dark bars (frontosa-like); females and non-displaying males are plain gray-brown.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →The Chituta Bay population
Plecodus straeleni "Chituta Bay" is the Chituta Bay population of Plecodus straeleni, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Plecodus straeleni, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Chituta Bay fish at tanganyika.si →
Sources
- tanganyika.si — Plecodus straeleni "Chituta Bay"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: species 'straeleni, Plecodus' (current status Perissodus straeleni)
- FishBase: Plecodus straeleni Poll, 1948
- GBIF: Plecodus straeleni Poll, 1948
- Boileau et al. 2015, 'A complex mode of aggressive mimicry in a scale-eating cichlid fish', Biology Letters 11:20150521
- Nshombo 1994, 'Foraging behavior of the scale-eater Plecodus straeleni in Lake Tanganyika', Environmental Biology of Fishes 39:59-72