Aquarist Atlas
Collection point · Lake Tanganyika · Zambia

Mbita Island

m-BEE-tah EYE-land (approx.)

The atlas records 25 collection-point forms from Mbita Island, across 14 genera.

8.7553°S 31.0961°E

Mbita Island — also called Kumbula Island — lies in Lake Tanganyika just offshore from Mpulungu, about 1 km north-west of Mpulungu Port.

Where it is

Mbita Island is at the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, 375 mi south of the lake's northern tip.

Nearest collection points: Mpulungu 0.4 mi south-east · Kasakalawe 2.1 mi south-west · Wonzye Point 3.4 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 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) (~2 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 (1843 clear days). The rainy-season months are usually too cloudy to measure and are left blank.

74°77°80°83°Jan: too few clear satellite days (2)–JFeb: too few clear satellite days (5)–FMar: 82 °F mean (81 °F–83 °F), 10 clear satellite daysMApr: 81 °F mean (79 °F–82 °F), 34 clear satellite daysAMay: 79 °F mean (78 °F–81 °F), 173 clear satellite daysMJun: 77 °F mean (76 °F–79 °F), 336 clear satellite daysJJul: 76 °F mean (75 °F–77 °F), 396 clear satellite daysJAug: 76 °F mean (75 °F–78 °F), 398 clear satellite daysASep: 78 °F mean (76 °F–80 °F), 303 clear satellite daysSOct: 80 °F mean (78 °F–82 °F), 146 clear satellite daysONov: 82 °F mean (80 °F–83 °F), 35 clear satellite daysNDec: too few clear satellite days (5)–D
Surface temperature by month near Mbita 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.

The site

Captions place the island directly off Mpulungu, with Mutondwe (Crocodile) Island as its close neighbour and Mpulungu Hill visible across the water. A photograph credited to Ad Konings documents the island's north-eastern shore as far back as 1995.

Sources
  1. tanganyika.si — Mbita (Kumbula) Island, Lake Tanganyika, Zambia: location page and photo gallery (captions by Ad Konings, Pam Chin, Mark Young)

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.

Altolamprologus (1)

Cyathopharynx (2)

Cyphotilapia (1)

Cyprichromis (2)

Eretmodus (1)

Julidochromis (1)

Lamprologus (1)

Lepidiolamprologus (1)

Neolamprologus (8)

Ophthalmotilapia (1)

Telmatochromis (2)

Tropheus (1)

Variabilichromis (1)

Xenotilapia (2)

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