Leopard mouthbrooders
| Leopard mouthbrooders | ||||||||||||
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Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus , drawing from the first description by Charles Tate Regan |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Regan , 1922) |
The Leopard mouthbrooders ( Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus , Syn. : Haplochromis fuscotaeniatus ) is a southern, on both sides of Malawian territory enclosed portion of the East African Lake Malawi and in the southern Lake Malombe endemic living cichlid .
features
The fish species can reach a total length of 20 (females) to 25 cm (males). It resembles the polyspotted mouthbrooder ( Nimbochromis polystigma ) but has a deeper split mouth and a slightly more pointed snout. The lower jaw has a length of 43 to 50.5% of the length of the head. The basic color of the leopard mouthbrooder is gray-green to gray-yellow. There are dark brown spots and stripes on it, which often form a coarse, net-like pattern on the upper half of the body. The lower half of the body is characterized by longitudinal stripes, which can be differently pronounced ( fuscotaeniatus = Latin : fuscus = gloomy, dark + taeniatus = banded). The fins are brown to gray. Sexually mature males have a metallic blue-green shimmering head, a dorsal fin with an orange border and egg spots in the anal fin. During the breeding season, the blue color spreads over the entire body and almost completely covers the pattern of spots typical of the species.
- Fin formula : dorsal XV – XVI / 11–12, anal III / 10–11.
- Scale formula : mLR 34.
Way of life
The leopard mouthbrooder is not common in its range and occurs mainly in the transition zone from the rocky to the sand littoral and in areas of the lake overgrown with plants. It feeds mainly on small fish. Like all haplochromine cichlids, the species is an ovophilic mouthbrooder in which the female takes care of the brood.
literature
- Günther Sterba : The world's freshwater fish. 2nd Edition. Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-332-00109-4 , p. 757.
Web links
- Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus on Fishbase.org (English)