Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Trematocara variabile

Trematocara variabile "Kalambo Lodge"

Kalambo Lodge — kah-LAHM-boh LOJ (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 variabile account →

Specific to Kalambo Lodge

  • 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 variabile.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2006
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size3.4 in8.7 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.3–9.2alkaline
Depth66–197 ft20–60 m
DietNocturnal micro-predator on zooplankton (swimming crustaceans), chironomid larvae, and other small benthic invertebrates.
BreedingMaternal mouthbrooder (inferred from congeners)Undocumented; as small maternal mouthbrooders, Trematocara are expected to carry modest clutches of a few dozen eggs typical of the genus
Sexual dimorphismYesRipe males show a melanin pattern of two to three broad dark longitudinal bands and darkened fins; females stay silvery with a black spot at the front of the dorsal fin. Sexes similar in size.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Kalambo Lodge population

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

Colour reference: living Kalambo Lodge fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Trematocara variabile is a small, silvery cichlid found only in Lake Tanganyika, where it belongs to a strange clan of fishes built for the dark. Like its relatives in the tribe Trematocarini, it spends daylight over the deep, muddy floor and rises toward the surface at night to feed, using oversized sensory pores on its head to find prey it can barely see. It is one of the least flashy and least understood cichlids in a lake famous for spectacle, and what little we know about its biology comes mostly from trawl nets and a handful of patient aquarists.

Full Trematocara variabile account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Trematocara variabile "Kalambo Lodge"
  2. Trematocara variabile — FishBase summary
  3. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (California Academy of Sciences)
  4. Genus Trematocara — iNaturalist taxon page
  5. Feeding in the dark: lateral-line-mediated prey detection in a cichlid — Journal of Experimental Biology
  6. The taxonomic diversity of the cichlid fish fauna of ancient Lake Tanganyika — J. Great Lakes Research