Common names:
Victoria stonebasher
Local: Not available

Taxonomic tree
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
Order: Osteoglossiformes (Fishes with bony tongue)
Family: Mormyridae (fishes with Elephant-like snout)
Genus: Marcusenius
Species: Marcusenius victoriae (Worthington, 1929)
Number of Occurrancies: 130

Etymology(based on Sharpf & Lazara, 2018)

• Marcusenius: in honor of German ichthyologist Johann Marcusen, who wrote the first systematic studies of mormyrids in 1854 and 1864


• victoriae: of Lake Victoria, one of the type localities

Synonyms:click here to view synonyms

Type locality: Entebbe, Lake Victoria. Syntypes at British Museum of Natural History (BMNH) 

General identification features for mormyrids: Elongate body; narrow and distinct caudal peduncle; opercular bones hidden beneath the skin, reduced opening of the branchial cabity reduced; small eyes covered by the skin; naked head, its skin thick and well supplied with mucus glands; small cycloid scales; and muscles of the caudal peduncle modified to form an electric organ, and the elaphant-like snout

Distinguishing characters for the genus

• Short dorsal and anal fins situated posteriorly


• Lower jaw extending beyond the upper jaw


• Chin with a fleshy globular thickening

Distinguishing characters for the species

• Depth of the body contained up to 3-4 times in standard length, and length of the head 4-5.5 times


• Upper head profile gently curved


• Snout 1/3-1/4 length of the head; small mouth with a globular, fleshy swelling on the chin


• Teeth small and conical, arranged in single series confined to the middle of each jaw; 5-6 in both jaws


• Dorsal fin with 22-25 rays, its origin above the 6th-9th anal fin ray


• Anal fin with 27-31 rays


• Caudal fin with pointed lobes, partly covered with scales


• Lateral line with 60-70 scales; 16-18 around the caudal peduncal, which is 2-3 times longer than deep


• Colour is variable depending on habitat, but typically golden brown dorsally, yellow or golen ventrally

Special taxonomic remarks: In old literature, this species is reported as Gnathonemus victoriae

Distribution in Uganda: Lake Victoria basin and affluent rivers, Kyoga, Kwania, Victoria Nile

Occurence: Native

Habitat: Demersal, inhabiting waters just above the bottom; common in shallow inshore waters over both sandy and rocky bottoms; potamodromous. In Lake Kyoga, the species is abundant in water-lily swamps

Feeding: Insectivorous, feeding mainly on chironomid larvae 

Biology: No information on breeding of species in Uganda; elsewhere, the species typically spawns twice a year in upstream waters during rainy seasons. The dominant size range of adults is

between 13 and 16 cm long, but no specimen recorded with lenght above 30 cm  

Economic importance/End use: Local subsistence (for food).

IUCN conservation status: click here to view IUCN status

Threats: River damming for hydro-electric power generation; Clearence of papyrus swamps and marginal wetlants; fishing of juveniles for baits in the Nile perch fishing industry.

Main references

• Greenwood PH. 1966. The fishes of Uganda. The Uganda Society, Kampala. 131 pages.


• Sharpf C, Lazara J.K. 2018. Fish Name Etymology Database v16. www.etyfish.org