''Chelaethiops minutus'' is a species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

in the family

Cyprinidae Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family, including the carps, the true minnows, and their relatives the barbs and barbels, among others. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family, and t ...

. It is endemic to

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

and its outflow, the

Lukuga River The Lukuga River () is a tributary of the Lualaba River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that drains Lake Tanganyika. It is unusual in that its flow varies not just seasonally but also due to longer term climate fluctuations. Location ...

and is found in

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, and

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

. Juvenile ''C. minutus'', i.e. those fish up to 75mm in length, live in the shallow waters near the shore.

Max Poll Max Fernand Leon Poll (21 July 1908 in Ruisbroek – 13 March 1991 in Uccle) was a Belgian ichthyologist who specialised in the Cichlidae. In the years 1946 and 1947 he organised an expedition to Lake Tanganyika. He has described several spe ...

discovered that the adult fish inhabit the pelagic zone and grow to 106mm. The adults are frequently caught in association with kapenta, the freshwater clupeids of Lake Tanganyika. In the light of the fishing lamps ''C. minutus'' and kapenta are readily identifiable from their behaviour. Kapenta form dense schools around one metre below the surface while ''C. minutus'' swim just below the surface and do not form schools. This species is feeds on wind blown insects which have fallen onto the surface. This is the only cyprinid in the Lake Tanganyika basin which has specialised in feeding on insects from the surface and this specialisation has enabled it to colonise the deeper waters of the open lake. ''Chelaethiops minutus'' is widespread in Lake Tanganyika and is a commonly caught species but is not regarded as a species of commercial importance. It may be locally threatened by water pollution but there are no widespread threats. The generic name is derived from the name of the Asian genus '' Chela'' with the addition of ''aethiops'' in reference to the African origin of the genus and so means ''Chela'' from Africa, the specific name ''minutus'' refers to this species small size.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2235867 minutus Fish described in 1906 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot