Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Pseudosimochromis curvifrons

Pseudosimochromis curvifrons "Mabilibili"

Mabilibili — mah-bee-lee-BEE-lee (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 Mabilibili

  • 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 Mabilibili population

Pseudosimochromis curvifrons "Mabilibili" is the Mabilibili population of Pseudosimochromis curvifrons, 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 Pseudosimochromis curvifrons, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Mabilibili 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 "Mabilibili"
  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