Description

Dorsal spines (total): 11 - 13; Dorsal soft rays (total): 12 - 13; Anal spines: 3; Anal soft rays: 9 - 11; Vertebrae: 28. Mature females with an overall golden hue; males with the flanks a pale blue. Swollen and brilliant white lateral parts of the lower lip of the mature male. Blue spots on scales becoming iridescent. Genital papilla conical, prominent and yellow in the mature male; swollen in the mature female. An oblique eye-bar intensely black in the breeding male, duller in the female.

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Teleostei

Order: Cichliformes

Family: Cichlidae

Genus: Oreochromis

Species: Oreochromis grahami (Boulenger, 1912)

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Facultative air-breathing (Ref. 126274); Occur at temperatures ranging from 16.0-40.0 °C (Ref. 2). Feed actively in the evening. Young O. alcalicus grahami eat eggs as they are shed by the female, and much of the time and energy of the territorial male is occupied in driving them off. Feed on invertebrates, at the surface (Ref. 2).

Habitat

benthopelagic