Collection point · Lake Tanganyika · Tanzania

Kigoma

kee-GOH-mah (approx.)

Also traded as “Kigoma area”

The atlas records 53 collection-point forms from Kigoma, across 25 genera.

4.8800°S 29.6300°E

Kigoma is Lake Tanganyika's main Tanzanian port, on the central-eastern shore — a long-standing collection region whose nearby bays and headlands mix rocky and sandy habitat, and one of the lake's permanently monitored limnology stations.

Where it is

Kigoma is on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in its northern third (107 mi south of the lake's northern tip).

Nearest collection points: Nondwa Point 1.9 mi north-west · Katabe Bay 2.1 mi south-west · Cape Bangwe 2.2 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: Kigoma (central, east shore) (~0 km) — Temperature 25.7 °C · pH 8.9 · Conductivity 654 µS/cm · Visibility (Secchi) 12.8 m

This site

Habitatintermediatebays and headlands around the lake's main Tanzanian port

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 (637 clear days). The rainy-season months are usually too cloudy to measure and are left blank.

Surface temperature by month near Kigoma — 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.

The site

The shores around the town alternate between rocky points and sand-floored bays, so Kigoma-labelled fish span both rock-dwelling and intermediate-habitat species. The name usually marks the wider Kigoma region of the Tanzanian coast rather than a single reef.

Kigoma is also one of the three stations whose long-term surface measurements anchor the lake's published limnology, which is why this page can show measured water values from effectively on-site rather than only a lake-wide envelope.

Sources

Konings, A. (2019). Tanganyika Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 4th 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.