can see P8 and the small clearing around
the town for agriculture. Everything else
is stream, river, or forest—which as of
2005 covered more than 85 percent of the
country. The terrain is very hilly.
Horst Linke
Southern Cameroon has a very high
annual rainfall total and the area is covered
with small streams. The streams in the
immediate area around Bandéwouri all
flow downhill to the north and drain into
the Lokundje River, which in turn flows
westward into the Atlantic Ocean, just past
the town of Fifinda. Just over the hills and
only a few thousand yards to the south of
Bandéwouri, the streams flow in a southerly
direction and drain into the Kienké River,
which flows into the Atlantic by the town
of Kribi. A few miles further south is the
Nyé’été River, which empties into the Lobé
River system, and this empties into the
Atlantic, barely 5 miles south of Kribi. In
between each of these river systems are hills
and valleys filled with literally hundreds of
smaller streams draining every which way.
In fact, many of the streams emptying
in opposite directions into the various
rivers are only separated by distances of
a few hundred yards. When the rivers get
down to the coastal area where the land
is relatively flat, all of the mouths of these
rivers are separated by less than 20 miles
of lowlands. Confused? I sure am, and I’m
Horst Linke
The Pelvicachromis taeniatus “Bandéwouri” variant from the 1990s (male above, female below)
showed a markedly different color pattern from the author’s more recently collected P. taeniatus
“Bandéwouri” population.
lavender to red, with some light blue in
them. There are occasionally one or two
black spots in the back half of the dorsal, but
these are sometimes absent and sometimes
present, again seeming to depend on the
mood of the individual fish.
As in all Pelvicachromis species, the fry
are cryptically colored to blend in with the
substrate. When mom tells them to head to
the bottom with a quick color change and
a shake, it can be hard to find the fry, even
though there may be a hundred tiny fish
right in front of you.
The Conundrum
Why is any of this of importance at all?
Why the conundrum about “Bandéwouri”
and where it actually comes from? Well, in
the 1990s, a collection supposedly made in
the area around Bandéwouri was circulating
around the few westie fans at the time.
Apparently they were not around long and
have not been in the hobby since. Now, a new,
very different Bandéwouri is in the hobby,
the remarkable specimens of which I am
currently breeding and are described above.
Now, there are several potential
explanations to this conundrum, and only
time and further exploration in the area will
tell for sure. At present, we can consider
these four possible explanations below. It
is likely that one of them is correct, but
which one, I can’t say. And of course, there
is always the possibility that the truth is
even stranger.
A Quick
Geography Lesson
Let’s take a quick look at the geography
of the area where these are believed to be
found. Bandéwouri is in the southernmost
province of Cameroon, which is called
Sud. Since Cameroon is about the size of
the state of California, Los Angeles can be
used to represent the size of the area on
which we’ll be concentrating. The town of
Bandéwouri is so small that it is not listed
on most maps of the area—if it were situated
in LA, it would not be any larger than
LAX (Los Angeles International Airport).
Bandéwouri is located on a road called P8,
about 25 miles outside of the coastal town
of Kribi, or about halfway to the next big
town, Bipindi. P8 is the only paved road in
the area, and according to maps published
in 2005, there are two small logging roads
that are also in the area, and that’s about it.
Looking at satellite photos of the area, you
Answers?
First, there is the distinct possibility that
the collector is intentionally not giving the
