Lamprologus ornatipinnis "Kipili"
Kipili — kee-PEE-lee (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 Neolamprologus ornatipinnis account →Specific to Kipili
- 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 Neolamprologus ornatipinnis.
The Kipili population
Lamprologus ornatipinnis "Kipili" is the Kipili population of Lamprologus ornatipinnis, 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 Lamprologus ornatipinnis, distinguished by its collection locality and local coloration; aquarists keep and breed it as a discrete, provenance-labelled line.
Colour reference: living Kipili fish at tanganyika.si →
About the species
Neolamprologus ornatipinnis is a small, sand-and-shell cichlid endemic to Lake Tanganyika, described by Max Poll in 1949 from deep water off the Congolese shore. It is one of the lake's many "shell-associated" lamprologines, yet it sits in an awkward middle ground: too large to live tucked inside a snail shell like a true shell-dweller, but dependent on empty Neothauma shells to breed. Females are dwarfed by males and famously hard to see, while a breeding male defending his harem can turn from retiring to ferocious almost overnight.
Full Neolamprologus ornatipinnis account →Sources
- tanganyika.si — Lamprologus ornatipinnis "Kipili"
- Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes: Lamprologus ornatipinnis (species record)
- FishBase: Lamprologus ornatipinnis Poll, 1949
- GBIF: Lamprologus ornatipinnis Poll, 1949
- FishBase occurrence records (GBIF + FB point data)
- Maréchal & Poll (1991), Check-list of the Freshwater Fishes of Africa (CLOFFA IV), Lamprologus
- IUCN Red List — Lamprologus ornatipinnis "Kipili"