Prepared by: Roger Bills, Andre Hoffman and Veer Bills
SEPTEMBER 2025
Purpose – This brief aims to highlight the status, threats and conservation options for the Orange Fringed River Bream (Chetia brevis).
The Orange Fringed River Bream (Chetia brevis) is a predatory riverine cichlid fish endemic to the Lomati River in Hhohho Province, Eswatini and Mpumalanga Province, South Africa (Bills et al. 2004, Skelton 2024). It is the southern-most representative of the tropical genus Chetia which is distributed sporadically in Southern Africa and none of the species are particularly widespread or common. No dedicated scientific studies have focused on C. brevis and relatively little is known about its biology. We do know it is a small species with large males attaining 150mm total length, females breed in summer and mouth-brood eggs and fry producing around 50-80 eggs per spawning and they feed upon aquatic invertebrates and small fishes (Kleynhans 1974, Skelton 2024).
