Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Xenotilapia burtoni

Xenotilapia burtoni "Burton Bay"

Burton Bay — BOO-rtohn BAY (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 burtoni account →

Specific to Burton Bay

  • 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 burtoni.

IUCNENDANGERED · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size7 in17.7 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8.6–9alkaline
Depth7–131 ft2–40 m
DietSand-sifting microcarnivore — sifts sand and mud for benthic invertebrates (insect larvae, small crustaceans, ostracods), diatoms and tiny molluscs.
BreedingMouthbrooder (maternal, inferred; biparental mouthbrooding/guarding in allied X. longispinis)Small, on the order of a few dozen eggs (genus-typical; undocumented for this species)
Sexual dimorphismYesWell-developed sexual dichromatism — males and females differ noticeably in coloration.
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Burton Bay population

Xenotilapia burtoni "Burton Bay" is the Burton Bay population of Xenotilapia burtoni, a geographic colour form from the Democratic Republic of the Congo coast of Lake Tanganyika in the far northern part of the lake. It is the same species as Xenotilapia burtoni, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Burton Bay fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Xenotilapia burtoni is a small, sand-dwelling cichlid of the tribe Ectodini, known to science from a single stretch of shoreline — Burton Bay, on the Congolese coast of Lake Tanganyika. Described by Max Poll in 1951, it spends its life sifting fine sediment for invertebrates on sandy and muddy bottoms a few meters to perhaps 40 m down. Almost nothing of its breeding has been watched in the wild, and its pinhead-sized geographic range makes it one of the few Tanganyikan sand-sifters that the IUCN now lists as Endangered.

Full Xenotilapia burtoni account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Xenotilapia burtoni "Burton Bay"
  2. Xenotilapia burtoni — FishBase species summary
  3. Xenotilapia burtoni — Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (CAS)
  4. Xenotilapia Boulenger, 1899 — genus record (WoRMS/Marine Species Traits)
  5. Sefc, K.M. 2011. Mating and Parental Care in Lake Tanganyika's Cichlids (Int. J. Evol. Biol.)
  6. Koblmüller, Salzburger & Sturmbauer 2004 — Evolutionary relationships in the sand-dwelling cichlid lineage (biparental mouthbrooding origins)