Aquarist Atlas
Collection point · Lake Malawi · Tanzania

Lipingo Rock

lee-PEEN-goh ROK (approx.)

The atlas records 1 collection-point form from Lipingo Rock.

11.1697°S 34.6867°E

Lipingo Rock, also known as Mbahwa Island, is a tiny island in Lake Malawi's Tanzanian waters between Hongi and Lundo Island, about 3 km west-north-west of Mbahwa.

Where it is

Lipingo Rock is on the eastern shore of Lake Malawi, in its central third (117 mi south of the lake's northern tip).

Nearest collection points: Mbahwa 1.6 mi south-east · Hongi Rocks 3.1 mi north-west · Hongi Island 3.1 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 Malawi — collection points share their lake's water; site-specific figures are shown only where the literature records them.

Temperature75.2–84.2 °F24–29 °C
pH8.2–8.6alkaline
Hardnessmoderately soft, alkaline, well-buffered79 ppm
Conductivity≈250–260 µS/cmmeasured range

Nearest measured station: Salima (south-east shore) (~289 km) — Conductivity 235 µS/cm

This site

Habitatintermediatetiny island between Hongi and Lundo Island

Surface temperature here

Across May–Nov, monthly means run 76 °F to 83 °F — coolest in Aug. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (878 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 (0)–JFeb: too few clear satellite days (1)–FMar: too few clear satellite days (1)–MApr: too few clear satellite days (6)–AMay: 80 °F mean (79 °F–81 °F), 56 clear satellite daysMJun: 78 °F mean (77 °F–80 °F), 105 clear satellite daysJJul: 77 °F mean (76 °F–78 °F), 144 clear satellite daysJAug: 76 °F mean (75 °F–78 °F), 197 clear satellite daysASep: 78 °F mean (76 °F–79 °F), 202 clear satellite daysSOct: 80 °F mean (78 °F–82 °F), 116 clear satellite daysONov: 83 °F mean (81 °F–84 °F), 49 clear satellite daysNDec: too few clear satellite days (1)–D
Surface temperature by month near Lipingo Rock — 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. malawi.si — Lipingo Rock (Mbahwa Island), Lake Malawi, Tanzania: location page and photo gallery (captions by Ad Konings)

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.

Maylandia (1)

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