Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Trematocara unimaculatum

Trematocara unimaculatum "Mpulungu market"

Trematocara unimaculatum (Chituta Bay, Kalambo Lodge, Kansombo Banks, Mpulungu market, Zambia)

Mpulungu market — m-poo-LOON-goo MAH-rkeht (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 unimaculatum account →

Specific to Mpulungu market

  • 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 unimaculatum.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2006
CARESNOT LISTED
Genus type speciesTrematocara marginatumBoulenger 1899
Scientific size6 in15 cm standard length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9.3alkaline
Hardness (GH)up to 357 ppm
Habitat waterhard · 600–690 µS/cmLake Tanganyika
Depth0–705 ft0–215 m
DietNocturnal benthic invertivore / zooplanktivore — small snails, insect larvae and crustaceans, detected by the enlarged head-pore lateral-line system; FishBase trophic level ~3.4
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooderlow fecundity; a ripe female has been reported carrying ~120 comparatively large eggs (~2 mm each)
Sexual dimorphismYesMales carry a large black dorsal-fin spot ringed by a pale halo; in females the mark is much reduced. Females also reach a larger size than males.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Mpulungu market population

Trematocara unimaculatum "Mpulungu market" is the Mpulungu market population of Trematocara unimaculatum, 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 unimaculatum, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Mpulungu market fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Trematocara unimaculatum is a small, silvery cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika and one of the rift's specialists for life in the dark. By day it holds along muddy slopes deep in the lake, down toward the lower limit of the oxygenated water; by night it climbs the slope to feed, guided less by its eyes than by an unusually elaborate net of sensory pores across its head. Almost unknown to aquarists, it is far better understood as a wild fish than as a pet — a quiet, abundant member of Tanganyika's deepwater fauna rather than a showpiece for the glass box.

Full Trematocara unimaculatum account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Trematocara unimaculatum "Mpulungu market"
  2. FishBase: Trematocara unimaculatum (Boulenger, 1901)
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (species): Trematocara unimaculatum
  4. Cichlid Room Companion: genus Trematocara (taxonomy & included species)
  5. iNaturalist: genus Trematocara
  6. Koblmüller et al. (2012), Evolutionary history of Lake Tanganyika's predatory deepwater cichlids (BMC/IJEB; PMC3362839)
  7. IUCN Red List — Trematocara unimaculatum "Mpulungu market"
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