Aplocheilichthys katangae

Aplocheilichthys katangae, a poeciliid killifish
found in the Lake Malawi drainage; illustration from Skelton (1993),
used by permission of P.H. Skelton
The "Striped topminnow," Aplocheilichthys katangae, has a distribution that stretches from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Indian Ocean. It never figured in previous checklists of Malawi fishes, but FishBase documents A. katangae in southern Malawi (drainages of Lake Malawi and the Zambezi River). Because it is "[f]ound in dense marginal vegetation of streams and rivers..." (Skelton, 1993), it can be expected in Lake Malawi along vegetated shores adjacent to the mouths of inflowing rivers and streams.

Unlike Aplocheilichthys johnstoni, A. katangae has a distinct, blackish stripe from the snout to the caudal fin base. Behind the pectoral fins, the stripe has a zigzag appearance because the pigment is confined to the exposed surfaces of the scales in a single scale row.

This topminnow reaches a total length of 5 cm or 2 inches. Skelton reports that it eats insect larvae and various small invertebrates including daphnia. It deposits eggs on vegetation in the manner of other serial spawners.

The above color painting by Elizabeth Tarr is copyright © by the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (formerly known as the J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology). It is reproduced here from Skelton (1993) with the kind permission of Prof. P.H. Skelton.

The Cichlid Fishes of Lake Malawi, Africa: MalawiCichlids.com