Tanganyika Cichlids in their Natural Habitat
3rd Edition by Ad Konings
For more than a century the cichlids of Lake Tanganyika have been a focus of scientific attention, and many interesting facts regarding fish behavior have been learned from study of this complex fish community. During the last five decades almost all of the 219 known species have become available in the aquarium hobby, and most of them have proved to be excellent aquarium residents, allowing aquarists to make a considerable contribution to our knowledge of these fishes through observations in captivity.This third, revised, edition of the definitive study of Lake Tanganyika cichlids discusses and illustrates more species than any previous publication. Basing his study on more than 750 hours of underwater observations all over the lake, the author characterizes the species by their habitat preferences, distribution, feeding and breeding behavior, and coloration.
The more than 1200 photos illustrate all known Tanganyika cichlids, and the majority were taken in the lake, portraying the fish in their natural habitat. And the wealth of information on the natural environment this book contains will render it increasingly possible to maintain each species in the most natural way, allowing it to behave as if it were in the lake. Only by thus duplicating their normal environment can we expect to be treated to the natural behavior of these cichlids.
Contents:
Introduction
The lake and its cichlids
Map of the lake
Taxonomy and phylogeny
The wave-washed upper rocky habitat
The shallow rocky habitat
The deep rocky habitat
The shallow intermediate habitat
The intermediate habitat
The sand
Empty shells
Muddy bottoms
The unknown depths
References
Index
Taxonomic changes since 1998:
The total number of species discussed in this book is 219. There have been numerous taxonomic changes since the previous (1998) edition, and these have been properly discussed in the text and are listed below in alphabetical order of genus.
Benthochromis: one new species described, B. horii Takahasi, 2008; the fish referred to as B. tricoti in earlier publications is now B. horii.
Callochromis: the fish previously referred to as C. stappersi is now an undescribed species, C. sp. 'pleurospilus tanzania'.
Cardiopharynx: an additional species, C. sp. 'kabimba', is identified.
Chalinochromis: one new species described, C. cyanophleps Kullander et al., 2014, previously regarded as a form of C. popelini; the undescribed 'ndobhoi' form is now regarded as a variant of C. brichardi; C. sp. 'bifrenatus' is now recognized as distinct from C. popelini.
Cyphotilapia: one new species described, C. gibberosa Takahashi & Nakaya, 2003, but synonymized with C. frontosa.
Cyprichromis: two new species described: C. zonatus Takahashi, 2002 (previously C. sp. 'zebra') and C. coloratus Takahashi & Hori, 2006; three additional species identified: C. sp. 'leptosoma kitumba', C. sp. 'leptosoma kigoma', and C. sp. 'kibishi'.
Ectodus: the 1998 E. sp. 'descampsi ndole' is corrected to E. descampsi, and the 1998 E. descampsi is now E. sp. 'north'.
Eretmodus: E. sp. 'cyanostictus north' has been described as E. marksmithi Burgess, 2012.
Greenwoodochromis: following Andersen (2014), the species abeelei and staneri (formerly in Limnochromis) are now placed in Greenwoodochromis.
Haplotaxodon: the newly described species H. trifasciatus Takahashi & Nakaya, 1999, is not accepted here but synonymized with H. microlepis.
Hemibates: a second species, H. sp. 'stenosoma zambia', is tentatively identified.
Interochromis: new genus described by Yamaoka et al. (1998) to accommodate what was previously Simochromis loocki.
'Lamprologus': Lepidiolamprologus lemairii is returned to this genus; 'L.' wauthioni is now placed in Neolamprologus and the undescribed form 'L.' sp. 'shell zambia' is now tentatively identified as Neolamprologus wauthioni.
Lepidiolamprologus: the fish previously referred to as L. hecqui is now L. meeli; a new species, L. kamambae Kullander et al., 2012, has been described but is regarded as a subspecies of L. kendalli; L. sp. 'profundicola tanzania' has been described as L. mimicus Schelly et al., 2007; L. lemairii has been returned to 'Lamprologus'.
Limnochromis: the species abeelei and staneri are now placed in Greenwoodochromis.
Neolamprologus: four new species described: N. cancellatus Aibara et al., 2005, N. chitamwebwai Verburg & Bills, 2007, N. walteri Verburg & Bills, 2007, and N. timidus Kullander et al., 2014. N. brichardi and N. crassus have been synonymized with N. pulcher; N. chitamwebwai Verburg & Bills 2007 is synonymized with N. falcicula; the fish previously regarded a variant of N. falcicula is distinguished as N. sp. 'falcicula cygnus'; the form known as N. sp. 'eseki' (Konings 2005) is referred to N. mondabu; the discovery of N. signatus along the central Tanzanian shore has led to recognition of N. laparogramma as a distinct species; N. longior, previously synonymized with N. leleupi, is restored to its original status as a subspecies of that species; N. cf. leleupi (1998) is now termed N. sp. 'leleupi kapampa'; N. petricola is synonymized with N. modestus; 'Lamprologus' wauthioni, which appears closely related to N. ventralis, is now placed in Neolamprologus; the new species N. cancellatus is not accepted as it is probably a natural hybrid between Telmatochromis vittatus and another species.
Ophthalmotilapia: the fish previously identified as O. heterodonta appears to be an undescribed species, O. sp. 'paranasuta'.
Perissodus: the genus Plecodus is synonymized with Perissodus; a deep-bodied Perissodus previously identified as P. eccentricus is now regarded as a form of P. microlepis.
Petrochromis: one new species described, P. horii Takahashi & Koblmüller, 2014, which includes the form previously known as P. sp. 'gold'; P. sp. 'moshi yellow' is now included in P. ephippium; P. sp. 'giant', P. sp. 'kasumbe', P. sp. 'texas', P. sp. 'texas blue', P. sp. 'texas kipili', and P. sp. 'texas red' are now regarded as geographical variants of P. polyodon; P. sp. 'orthognathus tricolor' is now regarded as conspecific with Interochromis loocki.
Pseudosimochromis: following Van Steenberge et al. (2015), three species formerly assigned to Simochromis, babaulti, marginatus, and margaretae, are now included in Pseudosimochromis.
Simochromis: the genus is now monotypic (with S. diagramma), following the transfer to Pseudosimochromis of the three species babaulti, marginatus, and margaretae.
Telmatochromis: one new species described, T. brachygnathus Hanssens & Snoeks, 2003, but synonymized with T. temporalis; T. sp. 'temporalis tanzania' is now included in T. temporalis; T. macrolepis is reinstated; three new species discovered: T. sp. 'schachbrett' (Büscher 1998b), T. sp. 'dhonti yellow', and T. sp. 'vittatus elongate'.
Trematochromis: T. schreyeni was synonymized with 'Ctenochromis' benthicola (Takahashi et al. 2006) but the genus Trematochromis is retained here and the species referred to as Trematochromis benthicola.
Tropheus: two new species, T. sp. 'lunatus' and T. sp. 'maculatus', have been identified (Van Steenberge 2014); T. sp. 'ikola' is included in T. sp. 'black'.
Xenotilapia: the previous synonymization of X. boulengeri with X. sima is corrected; X. sp. 'fluorescent green' is included in X. nasus; X. sp. 'ochrogenys ndole' is conspecific with X. singularis; X. sp. 'papilio katete' is regarded as a geographical variant of X. papilio.
