Mkanila Bay
m-kah-NEE-lah BAY (approx.)
The atlas records 7 collection-point forms from Mkanila Bay, across 5 genera.
12.0105°S 34.6174°E
Mkanila Bay is a bay on Chizumulu Island, a Malawian island surrounded by Mozambican waters, about 1 km east-north-east of Machili Island.
Where it is
Mkanila Bay is in open water about 12 mi off the eastern shore, in the central third of Lake Malawi (175 mi south of the lake's northern tip).
Nearest collection points: Machili Island 0.7 mi south-west · Chiteko 0.9 mi south-east · Chizumulu Island 1.1 mi south-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) (~195 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 (1074 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.
Sources
- malawi.si — Mkanila Bay, Chizumulu 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.