Original description as Haplochromis ptistes:
ZooBank:FBBB8C1B-BD97-480F-A547-7BE7680C69B4.
- 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 ptistes is evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species as (CR) critically endangered (2010).