Trematocranus placodon is a species of cichlid fish endemic to Lake Malawi, Lake Malombe and the upper reaches of the Shire River in Africa.

It is mainly a shallow-water species that prefers to occupy areas with patches of Vallisneria, but it can occur as deep as 31 m (102 ft).

[2] It feeds mainly on aquatic snails and has a preference for Bulinus nyassanus, making this cichlid beneficial to humans as that snail is an intermediate host of the parasite bilharzia (schistosomiasis).

[1][3] It has been suggested that an increase in bilharzia in Lake Malawi has been caused by overfishing of this and other snail-eating cichlids.

[1][2][5] Although it has seriously declined in some regions, overall it remains widespread and it is considered a species of least concern by the IUCN.