Aquarist Atlas
↑ Collection form of Neolamprologus signatus

Lamprologus signatus "Munshi"

Munshi — MOON-shee (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 signatus account →

Specific to Munshi

  • 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 signatus.

IUCNLEAST CONCERN · 2025
CARESNOT LISTED
Scientific size2 in5.5 cm total length
Temperature75–81 °F24–27 °C
pH7.5–9alkaline
Depth33–328 ft10–100 m
DietMicro-invertebrate predator; feeds on small shrimp, ostracods, and micro-crustaceans picked from and just above the soft muddy substrate; also takes zooplankton (FishBase trophic level ~3.6)
BreedingShell/mud-tunnel substrate spawnerSmall clutch; exact count undocumented in the primary literature
Sexual dimorphismYesMarked size dimorphism: males clearly larger (~5.5 cm) than females (~3.5 cm); males display vivid dark vertical bars that intensify during aggression and courtship; females are plainer and less strongly marked
PhotographsSee photosGoogle Images →

The Munshi population

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

Colour reference: living Munshi fish at tanganyika.si →

About the species

Neolamprologus signatus is one of Lake Tanganyika's least conspicuous endemics: a slender, finger-length cichlid that lives over the lake's soft mud floor rather than its photogenic rocky reefs. Barely an inch and a half long, the males wear a ladder of dark vertical bars down a pale body, and the species belongs to an unusual guild of "mud-tunneling dwarves" that dig spawning burrows in the silt — or borrow the empty snail shells scattered across it. It is sometimes sold under the genus Neolamprologus, the combination most current cichlid taxonomy prefers, but the name signatus and its 1952 author are not in dispute.

Full Neolamprologus signatus account →

Sources

  1. tanganyika.si — Lamprologus signatus "Munshi"
  2. Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes — species record for signatus, Lamprologus (Poll 1952)
  3. FishBase — Lamprologus signatus summary
  4. FishBase — Lamprologus signatus point map / GBIF occurrence data
  5. GBIF — Neolamprologus signatus taxon record
  6. IUCN Red List — Neolamprologus signatus (Haambiya, L., 2025)