Aquarist Atlas
Collection point · Lake Tanganyika · Tanzania

Msamba

m-SAHM-bah (approx.)

The atlas records 1 collection-point form from Msamba.

7.8145°S 30.7786°E

Msamba is a village in Mtipa Bay on Tanzania's Lake Tanganyika shore, about 1 km north-north-east of Kashia Island.

Where it is

Msamba is on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in its southern third (310 mi south of the lake's northern tip).

Nearest collection points: Kashia Island 0.9 mi south-west · Mongwe 1 mi north-west · Yamsamba Island 1.4 mi south

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) (~111 km) — Temperature 24.5 °C · pH 8.9 · Conductivity 662 µS/cm · Visibility (Secchi) 11.9 m

This site

Habitatrockycoast just south of the village, opposite Kashia Island

Surface temperature here

Across Apr–Nov, monthly means run 77 °F to 81 °F — coolest in Jul. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (1396 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 (1)–JFeb: too few clear satellite days (2)–FMar: too few clear satellite days (8)–MApr: 81 °F mean (80 °F–83 °F), 16 clear satellite daysAMay: 80 °F mean (78 °F–81 °F), 105 clear satellite daysMJun: 78 °F mean (77 °F–80 °F), 274 clear satellite daysJJul: 77 °F mean (76 °F–78 °F), 347 clear satellite daysJAug: 77 °F mean (76 °F–78 °F), 333 clear satellite daysASep: 78 °F mean (77 °F–80 °F), 215 clear satellite daysSOct: 80 °F mean (78 °F–81 °F), 74 clear satellite daysONov: 81 °F mean (80 °F–82 °F), 18 clear satellite daysNDec: too few clear satellite days (3)–D
Surface temperature by month near Msamba — 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

A caption describes rocky coast just south of the village, opposite Kashia Island, with Lwilwi Island visible in the distance behind a small islet.

Sources
  1. tanganyika.si — Msamba, Mtipa Bay, Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania: location page and photo gallery (captions by African Diving Ltd)

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.

Ophthalmotilapia (1)

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