Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Trematocara nigrifrons

Trematocara nigrifrons "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 Trematocara nigrifrons 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 Trematocara nigrifrons.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2006
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size4.5 in11.5 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Depth0–525 ft0–160 m
DietNocturnal benthic invertivore and zooplanktivore — aquatic invertebrates, shrimps, fish larvae and phytoplankton
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderUnknown
Sexual dimorphismYesMature males show a black band through the dorsal and anal fins and a dark line low on the body; no consistent size/shape difference reported, though males may run slightly smaller
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Chituta Bay population

Trematocara nigrifrons "Chituta Bay" is the Chituta Bay population of Trematocara nigrifrons, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Trematocara nigrifrons, 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 →

About the species

Trematocara nigrifrons is a small, soft-spoken cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, and a member of a genus that holds an unlikely record: Trematocara have been trawled from deeper water than any other cichlid on Earth. By day it sits over muddy bottoms a hundred-odd meters down in near-total darkness; by night it rides the rising plankton up toward the shallows to feed. Almost everything striking about this fish is a consequence of that life in the dark — enlarged sensory pores on the head, a pale body, and a habit of vertical commuting that keeps it nearly invisible to divers and hobbyists alike.

Full Trematocara nigrifrons account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Trematocara nigrifrons "Chituta Bay"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Trematocara nigrifrons (species entry)
  3. FishBase — Trematocara nigrifrons
  4. GBIF — Trematocara nigrifrons Boulenger, 1906 (taxon 2371066)
  5. Kirchberger et al. 2012, Evolutionary History of Lake Tanganyika's Predatory Deepwater Cichlids (Int. J. Evol. Biol.)
  6. Ronco, Büscher, Indermaur & Salzburger 2020, The taxonomic diversity of the cichlid fish fauna of ancient Lake Tanganyika (J. Great Lakes Res.)