Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Pseudosimochromis curvifrons

Pseudosimochromis curvifrons "Isanga Bay"

Isanga Bay — ee-SAHN-gah 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 Pseudosimochromis curvifrons account →

Specific to Isanga 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 Pseudosimochromis curvifrons.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2006
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size5.5 in14 cm total length
Temperature73–79 °F23–26 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth7–33 ft2–10 m
DietGrazes algal aufwuchs/biocover from rocks
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderSmall (genus-typical, ~10–30 eggs)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales larger and tend to lose the vertical barring, becoming uniform and sheeny; females and juveniles retain permanent brown vertical bars.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Isanga Bay population

Pseudosimochromis curvifrons "Isanga Bay" is the Isanga Bay population of Pseudosimochromis curvifrons, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Pseudosimochromis curvifrons, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Isanga Bay fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Pseudosimochromis curvifrons is a Tropheus-shaped, algae-nibbling cichlid found only in Lake Tanganyika, where it patrols the shallow, rubble-strewn rocky shore as a solitary, fiercely territorial grazer. It is the type species of its genus and lends that genus its defining feature: the steep, almost vertical forehead that gives the fish its name. Widespread around the lake yet never abundant anywhere, it is a fish more often admired in situ than kept, since its temper scales up faster than its modest 14 cm (5.5 in) length suggests.

Full Pseudosimochromis curvifrons account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Pseudosimochromis curvifrons "Isanga Bay"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Simochromis curvifrons / Pseudosimochromis curvifrons (Poll, 1942)
  3. FishBase — Pseudosimochromis curvifrons (Poll, 1942)
  4. GBIF — Pseudosimochromis curvifrons (Poll, 1942) (type specimens, occurrences)
  5. Wanek & Sturmbauer (2015) — Form, function and phylogeny: comparative morphometrics of Lake Tanganyika's cichlid tribe Tropheini, Zoologica Scripta 44:362–373
  6. O'Reilly et al. (2003) — Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika, Nature 424:766–768