Chembe Beach
CHEHM-beh BEECH (approx.)
The atlas records 11 collection-point forms from Chembe Beach, across 9 genera.
14.0241°S 34.8406°E
Chembe Beach is a beach on Lake Malawi's Malawian shore, under 1 km west-north-west of Chembe Village.
Where it is
Chembe Beach is on the eastern shore of Lake Malawi, in its southern third (314 mi south of the lake's northern tip).
Nearest collection points: Mitande Reef (Rocks) 1.1 mi west · Otter Point 1.6 mi south-west · Otter Island 1.7 mi south-west
Shore, third and distances are measured from the coordinates above against the lake’s mapped outline.
The water
Lake-wide measured chemistry of Lake Malawi — collection points share their lake's water; site-specific figures are shown only where the literature records them.
Nearest measured station: Monkey Bay (south basin) (~9 km) — Visibility (Secchi) 12.5 m
This site
Surface temperature here
Across Apr–Nov, monthly means run 75 °F to 82 °F — coolest in Jul. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (1458 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.
The site
Chembe Beach lies about 2 km east of Mitande Reef (Rocks) and about 3 km north-east of Otter Point.
Site photographs show Fat Monkeys Lodge in Chembe Village and Thumbi West Island seen from Gecko Lounge in the village.
Sources
- malawi.si — Chembe Beach, Lake Malawi, Malawi: location page and photo gallery (captions by Larry Johnson, Mattia Matarrese)
- Konings, A. (2016). Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 5th Edition. Cichlid Press, El Paso.
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.