Description

Dorsal spines (total): 14 - 16; Dorsal soft rays (total): 9 - 10; Anal spines: 3; Anal soft rays: 8 - 9; Vertebrae: 30 - 31. Diagnosis: Species with a piscivorous morphology; premaxillary pedicel and mental prominences strongly developed; outer oral teeth few and large, 22-31; dominant males yellow with an orange anterior part of flank (Ref. 126312). Amongst piscivorous species from the Lake Edward system, Haplochromis simba differs from H. latifrons, H. mentatus, and H. glaucus by the combination of a narrower interorbital area, interorbital width 45.5-50.4% of head width vs. 50.9-63.3%; and a strongly developed vs. absent or weakly developed mental prominence; it further differs from H. latifrons by a longer anal fin base, 17.3-19.0% of standard length vs. 14.7-17.3%; and absence vs. presence of a well-defined mid-lateral band; further from H. mentatus by a smaller number of outer upper jaw teeth, 22-31 vs. 28-46; and dominant males yellow with an orange anterior part of flank vs. green-yellow with a red anterior part of flank; further from H. glaucus by a narrower lower pharyngeal element, lower pharyngeal width 83.8-87.9% of lower pharyngeal length vs. 93.3-95.1%; and dominant males yellow with an orange anterior part of flank vs. uniformly light-blue (Ref. 126312). It differs from H. rex and H. aquila by the combination of a smaller number of scales between first anal-fin spine and upper lateral line, 9-11 vs. 12-16, rarely 11; and a strongly developed vs. absent or weakly developed mental prominence; it further differs from H. rex by a lower number of longitudinal line scales, 32-33 vs. 34-38; and dominant males uniformly yellow with an orange anterior part of flank vs. cream-coloured with an orange operculum and a light blue snout; further from H. aquila by a smaller eye, eye diameter 26.7-29.5% of head length vs. 30.0-31.5%; and dominant males yellow with an orange anterior part of flank and a yellow head vs. uniformly light grey with a black head (Ref. 126312). It differs from H. kimondo, H. falcatus, H. curvidens, H. pardus, H. quasimodo, and H. squamipinnis by the combination of large vs. small outer oral teeth and a smaller number of outer upper jaw teeth, 22-31 vs. 39-79; it further differs from H. falcatus, H. curvidens, and H. pardus by a deeper lacrimal, lacrimal depth 18.7-20.5% of head length vs. 16.0-18.8%; further from H. kimondo and H. quasimodo by a narrower head, head width 39.5-41.5% of head length vs. 42.0-48.1%; further from H. squamipinnis by absence vs. presence of minute scales on proximal part of dorsal fin (Ref. 126312).

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Teleostei

Order: Cichliformes

Family: Cichlidae

Genus: Haplochromis

Species: Haplochromis simba Vranken, Van Steenberge, Heylen, Decru & Snoeks, 2022

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Found in inshore areas over hard substrates (Ref. 126312). Based on its morphology, most probably a piscivorous species (Ref. 126312).

Habitat

pelagic