''Cyphotilapia frontosa'', also called the front cichlid and frontosa cichlid, is an east African species of fish

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Lake Tanganyika. The genus name is a combination of the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

"cypho-", meaning "curved", and ''tilapia'', which means "fish" in a local dialect. The species name ''frontosa'' is a reference to its relatively large forehead.

Description

''C. frontosa'' can grow to in length. Even captive specimens potentially grow to this size. It has distinct markings with five to seven black vertical bars adorning a white or blue body and head and trailing fins with a distinct blue hue. The species also develops a nuchal hump that is more pronounced in older specimens. ''C. frontosa'' is a sexually monomorphic species, although the hump is occasionally more pronounced in males. These fish can live over 25 years. As is the case with many of the cichlid species found in Lake Tanganyika, isolation of distinct breeding colonies has resulted in several different colour variants

evolving Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...

Distribution and habitat

This species is endemic to Lake Tanganyika in East Africa and is widespread in the northern half of the lake, whereas the closely related '' C. gibberosa'' inhabits the southern half of the lake. The species generally resides at greater depths (30–50 m subsurface) than most other cichlids, and rises to shallow waters in the early morning to feed on shoaling fish such as ''

Cyprichromis ''Cyprichromis'' is a genus of cichlids with five species. They are also known as the herring cichlids or sardine cichlids, since they form large schools in the open water of Lake Tanganyika. Of the known species, only '' C. microlepidotus'' has ...

'' species. When kept in aquariums they must be kept between 25 and 30 degrees, they will also need many dark spots, etc. Caves.

References

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q285838 frontosa Taxa named by George Albert Boulenger Fish described in 1906