Ectodus sp. "north"

Ectodus sp. 'north' in the aquarium of Julin Ruiz; France. Photo by Julien Ruiz. Determiner Julien Ruiz.

For an introduction to this potentially undescribed Ectodus species, please see Synopsis of Ectodus Boulenger, 1898 and Ectodus species reversed.

Ectodus sp. 'north' is, as the name indicate, distributed in the northern part of Lake Tanganyika between Moliro at the border between D.R. Congo and Zambia, and north of Utinta Bay in Tanzania (Verne 2001).

Ectodus sp. 'north' differ from E. descampsii by its shorter total length, reaching app. 10 cm, while the latter may grow to a total length of app. 14 cm.; it has with a noticeably more elongated body, that are 4-5 times as long as high vs. 3.5 in E. descampsii. The black spot in the dorsal fin, present in both species, is placed more to the front in E. sp. 'north' and tend to be placed more to the middle of the dorsal in E. descampsii. The characteristic yellowish unpaired and ventral fins of sexually mature males of E. descampsii is absent in E. sp. 'north'.

Ectodus sp. 'north' is currently under description by Sébastien Verne and Dr. Jos Snoeks (Verne 2001; Snoeks, personal communication).