Xenotilapia bathyphila "Zambia"
Zambia — zahm-BEE-ah (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 Zambia
- 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 Zambia population
Xenotilapia bathyphila "Zambia" is the Zambia population of Xenotilapia bathyphila, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern 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 Zambia 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 "Zambia"
- 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