Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Cyphotilapia gibberosa

Cyphotilapia gibberosa "Isanga Bay"

Isanga Bay — ee-SAHN-gah BAY (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 Cyphotilapia gibberosa account →

Specific to Isanga Bay

  • 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 Cyphotilapia gibberosa.

IUCNNOT EVALUATED
NEnot on the EX–LC scale
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size14 in35 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH8–9alkaline
Depth112–394 ft34–120 m
DietPiscivore; adults primarily ambush Cyprichromis sardine-cichlids at dawn and dusk, supplemented opportunistically by mussels, snails, shrimps, and insect larvae; juveniles lean on soft-bodied crustaceans
Breedingmaternal mouthbrooderTypically a few dozen; reports range up to ~50–60 large, near-pea-sized eggs
Sexual dimorphismYesMales grow larger, develop a more pronounced nuchal hump, and have trailing extensions on the dorsal and anal fins; females and subordinate males develop smaller humps
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Isanga Bay population

Cyphotilapia gibberosa "Isanga Bay" is the Isanga Bay population of Cyphotilapia gibberosa, a geographic colour form from the Zambia coast of Lake Tanganyika in the southern part of the lake. It is the same species as Cyphotilapia gibberosa, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.

Colour reference: living Isanga Bay fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Cyphotilapia gibberosa is the southern frontosa of Lake Tanganyika: a large, deep-bodied, hump-headed cichlid that hangs in loose schools over deep rock and ambushes sleeping sardine-cichlids in the half-light of dawn and dusk. For nearly a century every "frontosa" was lumped into a single species; only in 2003 did ichthyologists formally split the southern populations off as their own. It is one of the most coveted fish in the Tanganyikan hobby and, in the wild, a slow-growing deep-water predator hauled to the surface over days to keep it alive.

Full Cyphotilapia gibberosa account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Cyphotilapia gibberosa 'Isanga Bay'
  2. Cyphotilapia gibberosa — FishBase summary
  3. Cyphotilapia gibberosa Takahashi & Nakaya, 2003 — Plazi TreatmentBank (Copeia 2003, 4: 824–832)
  4. Takahashi, Ngatunga & Snoeks (2007) — Taxonomic status of the six-band morph of Cyphotilapia frontosa, Ichthyological Research 54:55–60
  5. Jackson et al. (2024) — Population Genetics and Gene Flow in Cyphotilapia frontosa and C. gibberosa, Fishes 9(12):481
  6. Cyphotilapia frontosa — FishBase (IUCN Near Threatened, 2025)