Altolamprologus calvus "Sumbu"Sumbu Calvus
Altolamprologus calvus (Black Congo, Black Pectoral, Cape Chaitika, Cape Kachese, Cape Kapembwa, Cape Nangu, Chisanze, Kapampa, Katete, Kitumba, Livua, Lupota, Moliro, Mtoto, Nkamba Bay, Nzwema, Sumbu)
Sumbu — SOOM-boo (approx.)
The fish
How this cichlid is built, and everything about how it lives, eats and breeds, is shared with the species — this page doesn't repeat it.
Read the full Altolamprologus calvus account →Specific to Sumbu
- Collection locality & coordinates
- Local coloration — best judged from the living-fish photo
- Kept as a single-provenance line, never crossed with other collection points
Care facts below are the species' — shared with Altolamprologus calvus.
The Sumbu population
The Sumbu calvus is a locality form of Altolamprologus calvus taken from the rocky reefs off Sumbu, on the Zambian shore of Lake Tanganyika at the neck of the Sumbu National Park peninsula. What sets it apart from the Congolese and Tanzanian populations is its base colour: a pale pearl-white to off-white ground crossed by sharp black markings, cleaner and higher in contrast than the yellower or browner forms found at other collection points around the lake. Because the neighbouring national park shields this stretch of shoreline from heavy artisanal fishing and habitat disturbance, the reef here stays well-structured and relatively intact — part of why hobbyists value fish from this point.
Colour reference: living Sumbu fish at seriouslyfish.com →
About the species
Altolamprologus calvus — the pearly or black calvus — is a slender, armor-scaled predatory cichlid found only along the rocky southwestern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Its body is so strongly flattened from side to side that it can slip into rock cracks too narrow for almost any rival or predator — a build that doubles as a hunting tool and as the basis of an unusual breeding trick, in which the female spawns inside a crevice too small for the male to follow. Patient, deliberate, and slow-growing, it ranks among the lake's most coveted aquarium fish, and its fortunes are now tied to the silting of the very shoreline it depends on.
Full Altolamprologus calvus account →Sources
- Poll, M. (1978). Contribution à la faune ichthyologique du lac Tanganika. Bulletin de l'Académie Royale de Belgique 64: 725–758
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — Altolamprologus calvus
- FishBase — Altolamprologus calvus
- Konings, A. (2015). Tanganyika Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 3rd ed. Cichlid Press
- IUCN Red List — Altolamprologus calvus (Near Threatened, 2025)
- Seriously Fish — Altolamprologus calvus
- Cichlid Room Companion — Altolamprologus calvus
- cichlid-forum.com — Altolamprologus keeping and breeding