Original reference as Tropheus sp. 'maculatus':
- van Steenberge, Maarten. 2014. "Species and speciation in Tropheus, Simochromis and Pseudosimochromis". PhD Thesis KU Leuven, Belgium. pp. 1-358 (crc06613) (abstract)
Conservation: Tropheus sp. 'maculatus' is not evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species.