Chitimba Bay
chee-TEEM-bah BAY (approx.)
The atlas records 9 collection-point forms from Chitimba Bay, across 8 genera.
10.5694°S 34.1898°E
Chitimba Bay is a bay on Lake Malawi's Malawian shore, about 2 km south-south-west of Chitimba Beach.
Where it is
Chitimba Bay is on the western shore of Lake Malawi, in its northern third (76 mi south of the lake's northern tip).
Nearest collection points: Chitimba Bay (Deep) 2.2 mi east · Lion Point 3.9 mi north-east · Gallireya Reef 5.7 mi north-east
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: Salima (south-east shore) (~354 km) — Conductivity 235 µS/cm
Surface temperature here
Across May–Nov, monthly means run 76 °F to 81 °F — coolest in Aug. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (789 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
A caption credited to Mark Thomas identifies Chitimba Bay as the first of three bays visible from Livingstone Mountain, with Young's Bay next along the shore and Chilumba Bay visible further in the distance.
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.