Distribution
Telmatochromis temporalis is endemic to Lake Tanganyika.
2 distinct habitats are occupied, which are:
- shallow rocky shore found over many types of rock substrates
- shell beds with high-density accumulations of empty snail shells of the gastropod Neothauma tanganyicense
Lake Tanganyika is one of the oldest lakes on earth. It is the second largest lake in the world by volume and with a maximum depth of 1,470m it is also the second deepest. It extends for 673km in a general north-south direction and shows an average width of 50km. The lake is bordered in the north-east by Burundi, in the east by Tanzania, in the south by Zambia and in the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Lake Tanganyika has:
- a size of 32,900 square kilometres
- pH averaging 8.4
- annual temperatures between 23°C–27°C
- visibility sometimes over 20m
Nutrition
Telmatochromis temporalis mainly feeds on filamentous algae. It has recently been documented that individuals of Telmatochromis temporalis show a mouth-opening either to the left or right. Such asymmetry of mouth-opening has been observed in several other herbivorous as well as scale-eating cichlids from Lake Tanganyika. It has been suggested that this interesting phenomenon has a genetic basis.
