Variabilichromis moorii "Kampemba Point"Moore's lamprologus
Variabilichromis moorii (Cape Nambeyeye, Fulwe Rocks, Izinga Island, Kala, Kalubale, Kambwebwe, Kambwimba, Kampemba Point, Kapampa, Kapere, Kasanga, Kashia Island, Katili, Katondo Point, Mamalesa Island, Mbita Island, Molwe, Mtosi, Mvuna Island, Nkondwe Island, Sumbu Island)
Kampemba Point — kahm-PEHM-bah POYNT (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 Variabilichromis moorii account →Specific to Kampemba Point
- 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 Variabilichromis moorii.
The Kampemba Point population
Variabilichromis moorii "Kampemba Point" is the Kampemba Point population of Variabilichromis moorii, 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 Variabilichromis moorii, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Kampemba Point fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Variabilichromis moorii is a small, dark, fiercely territorial cichlid found only in the southern half of Lake Tanganyika, where it tends algae-covered rock faces in the sunlit shallows. It is one of the few members of the substrate-spawning tribe Lamprologini to make a living grazing filamentous algae, and it pairs for life — yet genetic studies reveal that the brood a male defends so violently is, on average, only about two-thirds his own. The dramatic switch from canary-yellow juveniles to coal-black adults gives the genus its name, "the variable cichlid."
Full Variabilichromis moorii account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Variabilichromis moorii "Kampemba Point"
- FishBase — Variabilichromis moorii
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (Fricke, Eschmeyer & Van der Laan)
- Hata et al. 2014 — Diet disparity among sympatric herbivorous cichlids in the same ecomorphs (BMC Biology)
- Takeuchi et al. 2016 — Depth and substratum differentiations among coexisting herbivorous cichlids (Royal Society Open Science)
- Depth segregation and diet disparity revealed by stable isotope analysis (PMC4657292)
- IUCN Red List — Variabilichromis moorii "Kampemba Point"