Tyrannochromis macrostoma
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Tyrannochromis macrostoma |
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| ( Regan , 1922) |
Tyrannochromis macrostoma ( Syn .: Haplochromis macrostoma ) is a large-growing species of cichlid that is endemic to the East African Lake Malawi .
features
The species of fish can reach a length of 30 cm, is large-headed, elongated and has an extremely large mouth that has just been cut. Young fish are silvery gray, females brownish with a dark brown underside. In fully colored males, the back and the upper half of the flank are blue, the lower half of the body is black with a blue sheen, and the throat and belly are yellow. Two longitudinal stripes extend on the sides of the body, one in the middle which is always completely formed and a second on the upper half of the side, which can be broken up into a series of small spots. The middle streak may be almost invisible in adult specimens because of the dark lower half of the body. Another row of spots runs along the base of the dorsal fin. The premaxillary pedicel, which is a comb-like growth visible in living fish as a nasal hump on the upward-pointing branch of the premaxillary and a characteristic feature of the genus Tyrannochromis , is longer in Tyrannochromis macrostoma than in other Tyrannochromis species and is longer than a third of the length of the head (tip of the snout to the rear edge of the gill cover).
Way of life
Tyrannochromis macrostoma is solitary as an adult and occurs to depths of at least 40 meters in rocky zones and in regions with individual rocks on sandy soils, more rarely in areas with vegetation. He avoids large open sand areas. Young fish live in schools. Tyrannochromis macrostoma is piscivor and primarily hunts Mbunas , which are captured with a pike-like advance. Tyrannochromis macrostoma is not a stalker, but actively searches for prey fish swimming around rocks and in caves. Like all haplochromine cichlids, Tyrannochromis macrostoma is a mouthbrooder in which the female takes care of the brood. The young fish are looked after for a relatively long time, more than three weeks, and are three to four cm long independently.
literature
- Andreas Spreinat: Lake Malawi cichlids from Tanzania. Unitext Verlag, 1994, ISBN 3-926142-42-1 . Page 148–152.
Web links
- Tyrannochromis macrostoma on Fishbase.org (English)