Bilila (Kavala) Island
bee-LEE-lah kah-VAH-lah EYE-land (approx.)
Also traded as “Bilila Island”, “Kavala Island”
The atlas records 19 collection-point forms from Bilila (Kavala) Island, across 11 genera.
5.6542°S 29.4122°E
Bilila (Kavala) Island is an island on Lake Tanganyika's DR Congo shore, about 2 km south-south-east of Rwakwe.
Where it is
Bilila (Kavala) Island is in open water about 3.1 mi off the western shore, in the central third of Lake Tanganyika (160 mi south of the lake's northern tip).
Nearest collection points: Mtotokainda Island 2.2 mi west · Milima Island 2.9 mi south-west · Kibige Island 4.3 mi south
Shore, third and distances are measured from the coordinates above against the lake’s mapped outline.
The water
Lake-wide measured chemistry of Lake Tanganyika — collection points share their lake's water; site-specific figures are shown only where the literature records them.
Nearest measured station: Kigoma (central, east shore) (~89 km) — Temperature 25.7 °C · pH 8.9 · Conductivity 654 µS/cm · Visibility (Secchi) 12.8 m
Surface temperature here
Across May–Oct, monthly means run 78 °F to 80 °F — coolest in Aug. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (775 clear days). The rainy-season months are usually too cloudy to measure and are left blank.
Temperature: ESA Climate Change Initiative, Lakes_cci v3.0 (Asfour et al. 2026; doi:10.5285/a56dba09df8a42ec9fba8b8c7a5e1f69). Chemistry on this page remains the lake's own.
Each entry below is the population of that species recorded here — the form aquarists keep and breed as a distinct, provenance-labelled line. Crossing forms from different collection points is considered hybridisation in the hobby.