Common names:
Bitschumbi lampeye
None

Taxonomic tree
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned fish)
Order: Cyprinodontiformes (Rivulines, killifishes and live bearers)
Family: Procatopodidae (African Lampeyes)
Genus: Lacustricola Myers 1924
Species: Lacustricola vitschumbaensis (Ahl, 1924)
Number of Occurrancies: 172

Etymology(based on Sharpf & Lazara 2019)

• Lacustricola:  lacus, meaning lake; –icola, meaning dweller or inhabitant, presumably referring to type locality (Lake Tanganyika) of L. pumilus 


• vitschumbaensis: –ensis, suffix denoting place: Vitschumba (now spelled Vitshumbi), Democratic Republic of the Congo, type locality

Synonyms: click here to view synonyms

Type locality: Vitshumbi, Lake Albert, Democratic Republic of Congo. Syntypes at Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale (MRAC)

General notes on identification of African Lampeyes: The Procatopodidae (formerly cyprinodontidae/Poeciliidae) are a family of small fishes, often brightly colored. Both the body and head are covered by scales; mouth is protractile and directed obliquely upwards; Lateral line is absent; dorsal, anal and pelvic fins have no spine; circum-oral barbels are absent.  

Distinguishing characters for the genus

• Body is slender, not deepening markedly in the abdominal region (depth of the body contained 3.5-5.75 times in standard lenght, SL).


• Origin of the dorsal fin behind the first behind the first anal ray.


• Dorsal surface of the head flattened.


• Teeth in several rows, those of the outermost row somewhat enlarged. 

Distinguishing characters for species

• Dorsal fin with 9 or 10 rays (rarely 8 or 11); anal fin 14-16 rays


• Caudal fin longer than the head


• Depth of the body contained in 3.5-4.5 times in SL


• 28-30 scales in the longitudinal series, 20-26 around around the body in front of the pelvic fins


• Colour is olivaceous yellow, the scales have dark borders; a fine black line mid-laterally

Taxonomic notes: This species is commonly seen in the literature as Aplocheilichthys eduardensis, which is currently a junior synonym (Froese & Pauly, 2019).

Distribution in Uganda: Widely distributed; Lakes Edward and George, and the connecting Kasinga Channel, and affluent rivers; Lake Victoria, Semiliki river.  

Occurence: Native

Habitat: Benthopelagic, inshore regions with papyrus swamps

Feeding: Unknown

Biology: Not much information is available, except that the species may not exceed 5 cm SL

Economic importance/End use: Unknown

IUCN conservation status: Not Evaluated

Threats: Unknown

Main references

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


• Sharpf C, Lazara J.K. 2019. Fish Name Etymology Database v1. www.etyfish.org.


• Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2019. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (04/2019).