This large and impressive cichlid normally shows a whitish-silver body with a brown horizontal stripe along the sides, from the snout to the tail.

[3] This species once was regarded as a specialist, feeding on eyes of other fishes (hence the common name eyebiter), (Winkler, 1966) but such behavior has never been observed in the wild.

[3] Their laterally-compressed bodies are an adaptation that permits them to hide amongst aquatic plants and dart out to grasp prey as it passes.

Normally the spawning site sits between beds of aquatic plants but occasionally it is placed underneath or in the vicinity of a submerged tree trunk, or beneath an overhanging rock.

[5] While they are mouthbrooding the females are solitary,[1] holding the young in their mouths for around 3 weeks[5] and eventually release their brood among the schools of juvenile utaka which hide among the vegetation.

[2] In the aquarium Dimidiochromis compressiceps usually prefer to swim out in the open unlike the more common "Mbuna" (rock dwellers).