Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Cyphotilapia gibberosa

Cyphotilapia gibberosa "Kirando"

Kirando — kee-RAHN-doh (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 Kirando

  • 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 Kirando population

Cyphotilapia gibberosa "Kirando" is the Kirando population of Cyphotilapia gibberosa, a geographic colour form from the Tanzania coast of Lake Tanganyika in the north-central 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 Kirando 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 'Kirando' (Mattia Matarrese)
  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)