Original description as Haplochromis plutonius:
ZooBank:55C0D64E-52B0-4BFF-A933-3F74569B2036.
- Greenwood, Peter Humphry & C. D. N. Barel. 1978. "A revision of the Lake Victoria Haplochromis species (Pisces, Cichlidae), Part VIII". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zoology Series. vol. 6 (4): pp227-281 (crc01160)
Conservation: Haplochromis plutonius is evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species as (CR) critically endangered (2010). This species has not been caught or no data about a record of its caught is known since 1980, so it seems logical to think that it is endangered or extinct.