Tank Talk Magazine March 2010 | Page 36

36 Figure 3 Chalinochromis brichardi (from cichlidlovers.com http://www.cichlidlovers.com/c-brichardi.JPG ) My guess in regard to the specification of the brichardi species in the import lists is that this must be based on the pre-1989 literature before the popelini species was described and AQIS are running 20 or so years behind in the paperwork. In practice the importers and inspectors behave as if the genus as a whole are importable (other than not bothering to import the species actually listed) which makes practical sense as the juveniles of brichardi change their patterning and go through phases where only their mothers could tell them from the other unlisted species and environmental sense as the behaviour and characteristics of the entire genus are pretty consistant. Chalinochromis popelini Chalinochromis popelini (also known as C. bifrenatus), described by Pierre brichard in 1989 occur in the central and southern portion of the lake from Kalemie down to Lunangwa in the Congo and from Kasoje in Tanzania down nearly to Kasanga in Zambia. (see map on page 46) The adult of the species is identifiable by two black lines along the length of the body hence the synonym “bifrenatus” as well as a bridle-like patterning around the head and face common to the genus.