Original description as Haplochromis heusinkveldi:
ZooBank:DDE2B6F1-88A8-49D1-846E-58643B3B6AD8.
- Witte, Frans & E. L. M. Witte-Maas. 1987. "Implications for taxonomy and functional morphology of intraspecific variation in Haplochromine cichlids of Lake Victoria with descriptions of five zooplanktivorous species". From form to fishery: an ecological and taxonomical contribution to morphology and fishery of Lake Victoria cichlids (crc01275)
Conservation: Haplochromis heusinkveldi is evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species as (CR) critically endangered (2010).