''Cyphotilapia'' is a small

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of African

cichlid Cichlids () are a large, diverse, and widespread family of percomorph fish in the family Cichlidae, order Cichliformes. At least 1,760 species have been scientifically described, making it one of the largest vertebrate families, with on ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

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. ...

, with ''C. frontosa'' being roughly confined to the northern half of the lake and ''C. gibberosa'' roughly to the southern half.Takahashi, T. and K. Nakaya (2003). New species of Cyphotilapia (Perciformes: Cichlidae) from Lake Tanganyika, Africa. Copeia 2003(4): 824-832. They have a distinctly banded pattern, bulbous foreheads when mature and can reach up to in length. These are a

mouth-brooding Mouthbrooding, also known as oral incubation and buccal incubation, is the care given by some groups of animals to their offspring by holding them in the mouth of the parent for extended periods of time. Although mouthbrooding is performed by a va ...

cichlid with a rather small batch of fry each spawn. The mother will hold the fry in her mouth for about 3–4 weeks before finally releasing about 30-70 fry. These are slow-growing fish, which take up to 6 years to reach sexual maturity. They can live for up to 25 years.

Species

There are currently two recognized

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in this genus: * '' Cyphotilapia frontosa'' ( Boulenger, 1906) (Humphead cichlid) * '' Cyphotilapia gibberosa'' T. Takahashi & Nakaya, 2003

References

Pseudocrenilabrinae Fish of Africa Cichlid genera Taxa named by Charles Tate Regan {{Pseudocrenilabrinae-stub