Katonga
kah-TOHN-gah (approx.)
The atlas records 9 collection-point forms from Katonga, across 8 genera.
4.9153°S 29.6111°E
Katonga is a village on Tanzania's Lake Tanganyika shore, under 1 km north of Kitwe Point.
Where it is
Katonga is on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in its northern third (109 mi south of the lake's northern tip).
Nearest collection points: Mzungu Beach 0.5 mi south-west · Katabe Bay 1.2 mi north · Mawimbi 1.2 mi north-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.
Nearest measured station: Kigoma (central, east shore) (~4 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 (653 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 show Katonga Bay, Kitwe Point, and Mzungu Beach, with Ujiji visible on the horizon.
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.