Plecodus straeleni "Ulwile Island"
Ulwile Island — oo-LWEE-leh EYE-land (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 Ulwile Island
- 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 Ulwile Island population
Plecodus straeleni "Ulwile Island" is the Ulwile Island population of Plecodus straeleni, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central 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 Ulwile Island fish at tanganyika.si →
Sources
- tanganyika.si — Plecodus straeleni "Ulwile Island"
- 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