Common names:
Graham's stonebasher
Lunyoro: Kamtontoru Lukenyi: Ndonge Ludope: Adol Lango: Dono

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: Hippopotamyrus
Species: Hippopotamyrus grahami (Norman, 1928)
Number of Occurrancies: 133

Etymology(based on Sharpf & Lazara, 2018) 

• Hippopotamyrus:  referring to lower median teeth which, in their direction and length, correspond to those of the lower jaw of a hippopotamus; –myrus, conventional termination for generic names of elephantfishes, derived from Mormyrus 


• grahami:  in honor of fisheries biologist Michael Graham (1898-1972), who collected type during a “fishing survey” of Lake Victoria and presented it to the British Museum (Natural History)

Synonyms: click here to view synonyms

Type locality: Lake Victoria, near the mouth of River kagera. Types at the British Museum of Natural History (BMNH)

General morphometric features of 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 


• Upper jaw extending beyond the lower jaw, with more than 12 teeth in the lower jaw


• Presence of a rounded chin 


• Dorsal fin originating anterior to the origin of the anal fin 

Distinguishing characters for the species

• Depth of the body contained up to 3 times in standard length, and length of the head 4-5 times


• Snout 1/5-1/4 length of the head, rounded and projecting beyond the mouth, which is situated below the nostrils


• Teeth notched in young fishes but truncated in adults, 5-6 in the middle of each jaw


• Dorsal fin with 29-31 rays


• The basal length of the dorsal fin is clearly shorter than the distance from the head


• Anal fin with 24-36 rays, its origin is below the middle of the dorsal fin


• Lateral line with 60-69 small scales; the caudal peduncal is 2.5-3 times longer than deep


• Colour is golden brown above, lighter, almost yellow below

Taxonomic notes: This species in old literature is reported as Marcusenius grahami, which is now a synonym. 

Distribution in Uganda: Lakes Victoria and its affluent rivers, Kyoga basin, Victoria Nile

Occurence: Native

Habitat: Benthopelagic, inhabiting bottom and midwaters; common in shallow coastal waters, particulary where the bottom is sandy; potamodromous.

Feeding: Primarily insectivore, particulary feeding on chironomid larvae

Biology: No information available.

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

IUCN conservation status: click here to view IUCN status

Threats: Habitat degradation; 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