Lake Chala tilapia
The Lake Chala tilapia is a species of cichlid fish that is endemic to Lake Chala, a small crater lake on the border of Kenya and Tanzania. It mostly lives in relatively deep water, at depths between. It is considered critically endangered by the IUCN with the primary threats being deterioration of its habitat due to siltation, and other non-native tilapia species that have been introduced to Lake Chala. Before these introductions, the Lake Chala tilapia was the only fish in Lake Chala. It is very closely related to the similar Jipe tilapia, another highly threatened species from the same general region of Kenya and Tanzania. The Lake Chala tilapia can reach a standard length of up to.
The specific name hunteri honours the British zoologist Henry C. V. Hunter who collected the type and who provided notes in this species distribution. O. hunteri is the type species of the genus Oreochromis.
