Neetroplus nematopus is a small to medium-sized cichlids. "Neets", as they are called in the hobby, graze algae off logs and rocks, much like the Tropheus cichlids do in Lake Tanganyika. You can immediately tell the breeding status of a neet. They are normally whitish-gray with black bars but when they are guarding eggs or fry they are dark-gray with a vertical white bar. In the sometimes-murky water, the vertical white bar really stands out as does the white eye.