''Rhamphochromis'' is a
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 East African
haplochromine
__NOTOC__
The haplochromine cichlids are a tribe of cichlids in subfamily Pseudocrenilabrinae called Haplochromini. This group includes the type genus ''Haplochromis'' plus a number of closely related genera such as '' Aulonocara'', '' Astatotila ...
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 ...
s
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 ...
to the
Lake Malawi
Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
It is ...
basin, also including
Lake Malombe
Lake Malombe is a lake in southern part of Malawi. It is located on the Shire River, in the Southern Region around , about south of much larger Lake Malawi. It has an area of about . In recent years the number of fishermen on the lake has risen ...
, Lake Chilingali, Chia Lagoon and upper
Shire River
The Shire is the largest river in Malawi. It is the only outlet of Lake Malawi and flows into the Zambezi River in Mozambique. Its length is . The upper Shire River issues from Lake Malawi and runs approximately before it enters shallow Lake Malo ...
.
[Genner; Nichols; Carvalho; Robinson; Shaw; Smith; and Turner (2007). Evolution of a cichlid fish in a Lake Malawi satellite lake. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274(1623). doi: 10.1098/rspb.2007.0619.] They mainly occur in offshore open waters (down to depths of
[Lowe-McConnell, R.H. (2003). Recent research in the African Great Lakes: Fisheries, biodiversity and cichlid evolution. Freshwater Forum 20(1): 4—64.]), but a few species also near the coast.
[ Konings, Ad (1990). ''Ad Konings' Book of Cichlids and all the other Fishes of Lake Malawi.'' Pp. 458—464. .] They are
piscivore
A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted repti ...
s that typically feed on
lake sardines and small
utaka
'' Copadichromis azureus'', one of the utaka of Lake Malawi in Africa
Utaka is a term used for multiple open water-dwelling cichlid species that are found in Lake Malawi, the most diverse source of cichlids in the world of aquaria. Among others, ...
cichlids.
[
They are elongated in shape and mainly silver or golden-silver in color, sometimes with yellow fins (especially ]pelvic
The pelvis (: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an anatomical trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis or pelvic skeleton).
...
and anal fin
Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...
s) and dark horizontal lines along the body. Depending on the species involved, they reach lengths of up to .Bathybates
''Bathybates'' is a genus of piscivorous
A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then ...
'' cichlids of 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. ...
.[Lindqvist, O.V.; H. Mölsä; K. Solonen; J. Sarvala, editors (1999). From Limnology to Fisheries: Lake Tanganyika and Other Large Lakes. Pp. 213—214. Springer. ]
Species
There are currently six recognized species in this genus,[ although the naming of these cichlids has been complicated. For example, FishBase states that ''Rhamphochromis lucius'' is almost certainly a ]synonym
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...
of ''R. woodi''Catalog of Fishes
Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously up ...
states that it is a synonym of ''R. esox''.IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...
and the Catalog of Fishes recognise the following five species as valid within this genus:
References
Haplochromini
Fishkeeping
Cichlid genera
Taxa named by Charles Tate Regan
{{Pseudocrenilabrinae-stub