Higga Reef
HEE-gah REEF (approx.)
The atlas records 16 collection-point forms from Higga Reef, across 8 genera.
11.3061°S 34.7467°E
Higga Reef is a reef of large boulders off Lake Malawi's Tanzanian shore, about 1 km west-north-west of Mara (Ngkuyo) Reef.
Where it is
Higga Reef is on the eastern shore of Lake Malawi, in its central third (127 mi south of the lake's northern tip).
Nearest collection points: Mandalawi Reef 1.4 mi north · Ngkuyo Island 1.6 mi south-east · Sambia Reef 2.6 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) (~274 km) — Conductivity 235 µS/cm
This site
Surface temperature here
Across May–Nov, monthly means run 76 °F to 82 °F — coolest in Aug. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (945 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
Site photographs describe boulders that were completely submerged at the end of the rainy season in 1993; falling water levels had exposed one boulder by the end of the dry season in 2004. Another photograph is taken from the reef looking toward Mbamba Bay.
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.