Triglachromis otostigma "Cape Kachese"
Cape Kachese — KAYP kah-CHEH-seh (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 Triglachromis otostigma account →Specific to Cape Kachese
- 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 Triglachromis otostigma.
The Cape Kachese population
Triglachromis otostigma "Cape Kachese" is the Cape Kachese population of Triglachromis otostigma, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Triglachromis otostigma, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Cape Kachese fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Triglachromis otostigma is a slender, mud-loving cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika and the only member of its genus. Its standout feature gives it its name: the lowermost rays of its pectoral fins are drawn out into stiff, finger-like filaments that it trails over the soft lakebed to feel for buried food, much as a marine gurnard (genus Trigla) walks the seafloor on modified fin rays. It lives where few other Tanganyikan cichlids do, on open mud flats where pairs excavate networks of burrows and raise their young as bi-parental mouthbrooders.
Full Triglachromis otostigma account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Triglachromis otostigma "Cape Kachese"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Triglachromis otostigma (Regan, 1920)
- FishBase — Triglachromis otostigma summary
- GBIF occurrence dataset — Fishes of Lake Tanganyika
- iNaturalist — Triglachromis otostigma taxon page
- O'Reilly et al. 2003, Climate change decreases aquatic ecosystem productivity of Lake Tanganyika, Nature