Xenotilapia bathyphila "Mtoto"
Mtoto — m-TOH-toh (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 Xenotilapia bathyphila account →Specific to Mtoto
- 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 Xenotilapia bathyphila.
The Mtoto population
Xenotilapia bathyphila "Mtoto" is the Mtoto population of Xenotilapia bathyphila, a geographic colour form from the Democratic Republic of the Congo coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central part of the lake. It is the same species as Xenotilapia bathyphila, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Mtoto fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Xenotilapia bathyphila is a slender, sand-sifting cichlid found only in Lake Tanganyika, where it patrols the open sandy floor in loose schools and strains tiny invertebrates from mouthfuls of substrate. Its name literally means "deep-loving," a nod to the relatively deep sand flats it favors. A member of the lake's sand-dwelling Ectodini tribe, it is a maternal mouthbrooder that carries its young to safety in the most exposed habitat in the lake — wide-open sand with nowhere to hide.
Full Xenotilapia bathyphila account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Xenotilapia bathyphila "Mtoto"
- FishBase — Xenotilapia bathyphila (Poll, 1956)
- GBIF — Xenotilapia bathyphila Poll, 1956
- Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer / CAS) — Xenotilapia species record
- Sefc et al. — Mating and Parental Care in Lake Tanganyika's Cichlids (biparental mouthbrooding in Xenotilapia)
- Koblmüller et al. — Evolutionary relationships in the sand-dwelling cichlid lineage (Ectodini) of Lake Tanganyika