During the examination of Lake Tanganyikan fishes held at the American Museum of Natural History, several specimens of the genus Chrysichthys could not be identified to any of the known species from the lake or elsewhere. This material is believed to represent a new species, distinguished from other species of Chrysichthys on the basis of a weakly expressed or absent postcleithral process, 14–16 rakers on the first gill arch, toothplates of the premaxillae and palate bearing small and tightly packed teeth, vomerine toothplates widely separated and narrower than those on the pterygoids, supraoccipital broad and contacting the predorsal plate, body width at pectoral-fin insertions 4.9–5.3 (5.1 ± 0.1) times in SL, interorbital width contained 3.0–4.1 (3.4 ± 0.4) times in HL, distance between posterior nares contained 4.0–4.8 (4.3 ± 0.3) times in HL, maxillary barbels contained 4.1–5.5 (4.7 ± 0.8) times in SL, and the distance between posterior margins of adipose fin and hypural plate contained 5.1–6.0 (5.5 ± 0.3) times in SL.