Shell Dweller

About

Found on shallow muddy lake floors rather than the rocky shorelines most Tanganyikan cichlids prefer, Lamprologus kungweensis is a compact shell-dweller with a distinctive gold flash across the top of the eye and a bold black spot near the rear of the dorsal fin. Details that help separate it from close relatives like L. hecqui. In the wild it ranges along a generous stretch of Lake Tanganyika, from Kungwe Bay in Tanzania north to Bujumbura and south into the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its presence in a lake is betrayed by rows of small, narrow burrow entrances pockmarking the sediment, tunnels the fish dig while foraging for zooplankton and small invertebrates. In an aquarium the same industrious, territory-minded personality shows up quickly. This fish will defend its chosen shell and the patch of substrate around it with real conviction, yet it generally ignores tankmates that stay out of its zone, making rockdwellers like Neolamprologus brichardi or open-water Cyprichromis reasonable companions. Kept in a colony with a healthy surplus of shells and more females than males, it settles into a fascinating social structure. Breeding is relatively straightforward for an intermediate keeper, with females brooding inside shells and both parents sharing guarding duties. It does not appear in the hobby all that often, which is a shame.