Original description as Alticorpus mentale:
ZooBank:E9E5CC99-8B5B-403A-9A81-F0685B1C1529.
- Stauffer, Jay Richard Jr. & Kenneth R. McKaye. 1988. "Description of a genus and three deep water species of fishes (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa". Copeia. 1988(2):441-449 (crc00218) (abstract)
Conservation: Alticorpus mentale is evaluated by the international union for the conservation of nature in the iucn red list of threatened species as (LC) least concern (2018). This species is endemic to and widespread throughout Lake Malawi with no known major threats. The species is not targeted by the ornamental fish trade, but like all Malawi cichlids A. mentale is a food fish, however, no decline in the population has been detected by fishery research trawls. Overfishing is a potential future threat to this species should demersal trawling be extended to deeper water (Konings et al., 2018).