Membe Point
MEHM-beh POYNT (approx.)
The atlas records 9 collection-point forms from Membe Point, across 6 genera.
12.0583°S 34.7519°E
Membe Point is a point on Likoma Island, a Malawian island surrounded by Mozambican waters, under 1 km east-south-east of Madimba Bay.
Where it is
Membe Point is in open water about 3.7 mi off the eastern shore, in the central third of Lake Malawi (178 mi south of the lake's northern tip).
Nearest collection points: Madimba Bay 0.2 mi west · Mbamba Islands 0.6 mi south · Maingano Island 0.9 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 Malawi — collection points share their lake's water; site-specific figures are shown only where the literature records them.
Nearest measured station: Salima (south-east shore) (~192 km) — Conductivity 235 µS/cm
Surface temperature here
Across Apr–Nov, monthly means run 76 °F to 82 °F — coolest in Aug. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (1255 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, credited to Ad Konings, place the point near the Mbamba Islands, with Likoma's main landmass behind it.
Sources
- malawi.si — Membe Point, Likoma Island, Lake Malawi, Malawi: location page and photo gallery (captions by Ad Konings)
- Konings, A. (2016). Malawi Cichlids in their Natural Habitat, 5th 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.