The Zambezi bream is a medium-sized species of haplochromine which has a large head with a rounded snout and an slightly, upward pointing mouth.

The scales have red in their centres and there are red dots on the parts of the dorsal and anal fins supported by rays, while the tail has brown spots and there are orange egg imitating spots on the anal fin.

[3] A population in the Mwekera, a tributary of the Kafue River may represent a separate species.

[4] The Zambezi bream is found in the margins of river channels and tributaries where there is a slower current as well as in lagoons and floodplains dominated by sawgrass, wherever there is an abundance of aquatic plants or tangles of tree roots.

[3] This species is possibly an important intermediate host of the parasitic nematodes of the genus Contracaecum, the ultimate hosts being the piscivorous birds which frequently feed on Zambezi bream including white-breasted cormorant, long-tailed cormorant, African darter and grey heron.