Aquarist Atlas
Collection point · Lake Tanganyika · Tanzania

Kala Island

KAH-lah EYE-land (approx.)

The atlas records 4 collection-point forms from Kala Island, across 4 genera.

8.2077°S 30.9571°E

Kala Island is an island off Lake Tanganyika's Tanzanian shore, under 1 km north of Singa Island.

Where it is

Kala Island is on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in its southern third (337 mi south of the lake's northern tip).

Nearest collection points: Singa Island 0.4 mi south · Maleza Island 0.9 mi west · Nausingili Island 1.2 mi 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 Tanganyika — collection points share their lake's water; site-specific figures are shown only where the literature records them.

Temperature77–80.6 °F25–27 °C
pH8.6–9.2alkaline
Hardnesshard · 600–690 µS/cm

Nearest measured station: Mpulungu (south basin) (~64 km) — Temperature 24.5 °C · pH 8.9 · Conductivity 662 µS/cm · Visibility (Secchi) 11.9 m

Surface temperature here

Across Mar–Nov, monthly means run 76 °F to 82 °F — coolest in Jul. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (1593 clear days). The rainy-season months are usually too cloudy to measure and are left blank.

75°78°81°84°Jan: too few clear satellite days (2)–JFeb: too few clear satellite days (3)–FMar: 82 °F mean (81 °F–83 °F), 10 clear satellite daysMApr: 81 °F mean (80 °F–82 °F), 23 clear satellite daysAMay: 79 °F mean (78 °F–81 °F), 142 clear satellite daysMJun: 78 °F mean (76 °F–80 °F), 304 clear satellite daysJJul: 76 °F mean (75 °F–78 °F), 363 clear satellite daysJAug: 77 °F mean (76 °F–78 °F), 383 clear satellite daysASep: 78 °F mean (76 °F–80 °F), 229 clear satellite daysSOct: 80 °F mean (78 °F–81 °F), 109 clear satellite daysONov: 81 °F mean (80 °F–82 °F), 20 clear satellite daysNDec: too few clear satellite days (5)–D
Surface temperature by month near Kala Island — dot = mean, bar = typical range (10th–90th percentile), “–” = too cloudy to measure.

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.

Sources
  1. tanganyika.si — Kala Island, Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania: location page and photo gallery

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.

Benthochromis (1)

Boulengerochromis (1)

Eretmodus (1)

Tropheus (1)

← All collection points