Freshly collected male
Freshly collected male of Oreochromis chungruruensis from Lake Kiungululu [Tanzania]. Photo by George Turner. (28-Nov-2011). determiner George Turner

Family
Cichlidae

Sub-family
Pseudocrenilabrinae

Tribe
Oreochromini

Genus
Oreochromis


Curator

Published:

Last updated on:
20-Nov-2015

Oreochromis chungruruensis (Ahl, 1924)


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Original description as Tilapia chungruruensis:

ZooBank:AD990361-7254-4E62-96AD-8F01D1A2E650.

  • Ahl, Ernst. 1924. "Über einen neuen Cichliden aus Ost-Africa". Zoologische Anzeiger. 59 86-87 (crc01167)

Conservation: Oreochromis chungruruensis is evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species as (CR) critically endangered (2006). IUCN has red-listed the species as ‘Critically Endangered’. The rationale is given that it is “restricted to a single small crater lake, which is subject to ongoing habitat loss due to siltation and in which the extent of occurrence fluctuates greatly due to changes in lake level during drought years” (Bayona, 2006). These seem unlikely threats as the lake is steep-sided and very deep. However, there is no restriction on fishing (a huge gill net was in use in July 2011), nor on the introduction of exotic species. Indeed, Tanzanian Government Fishery Officers claimed to have successfully introduced Black Bass to the lake to control snails that carry schistosomiasis (bilharzia). Extensive surveys of the lake in 2011 revealed neither vector snails nor black bass. However, both Coptodon rendalli and T. sparrmanii appear to be established in the lake. As neither species is present in the Berlin collections, it seems likely that both have been introduced. Exotic Oreochromis species have recently been introduced into most water bodies in Tanzania, and attempts to introduce Nile Tilapia were mentioned. Such an introduction, if successful, could quickly lead to the extinction or genetic dilution of the species through competition or hybridization.