Rift Lake Catfish

Rift Lake Catfish
by Shane Linder

There are a lot of people out there keeping Rift Lake tanks, but they are mostly full of nothing but cichlids. The lakes are full of all kinds of fishes and a good Rift Lake tank, in my opinion, should reflect this.

Lake Tanganyika:

Family Claroteidae (This fishes were split from Bagridae by Mo in 1991) Lophiobagrus cyclurus- Found in the rocky shoreline and grows to 4". It has been spawned in the aquarium. There are three other member of Lophiobagrus and they are all found in Lake Tangayika (aquilus, asperispinis, and brevispinis)

Chrysichthys brachynema
C. grandis
C. sianenna
C. stappersi
Phyllonemus filinemus
P. typhus
Bathybagrus tetranema

Mochokidae

Synodontis dhonti
S. granulosus
S. lacustricolus
S. multipunctatus- spawned in captivity
S. petricola- recently spawned in captivity
S. polli

Lake Malawi:

Bagridae

Auchenoglanis cf. biscutatus
There are also members of the genus Bagrus (Family Bagridae), but these are all big catfishes.

Mochokoidae

Synodontis njassae- There are two colr forms (large-spot and small-spot)

I told you there were catfishes in them there lakes! I hope this is useful.