Aquarist Atlas
Collection point · Lake Tanganyika · Tanzania

Sibwesa

see-BWEH-sah (approx.)

The atlas records 31 collection-point forms from Sibwesa, across 16 genera.

6.4500°S 29.9500°E

Sibwesa is a rocky point on Tanzania's Lake Tanganyika shore, known locally as Sibwesa Rocks and Sibwesa Point.

Where it is

Sibwesa is on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in its central third (216 mi south of the lake's northern tip).

Nearest collection points: Lyamembe 2.1 mi west · Makola 2.2 mi south · Mabilibili Bay 2.7 mi 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 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: Kigoma (central, east shore) (~178 km) — Temperature 25.7 °C · pH 8.9 · Conductivity 654 µS/cm · Visibility (Secchi) 12.8 m

This site

Habitatrockyrocky point known locally as Sibwesa Rocks

Surface temperature here

Across May–Oct, monthly means run 77 °F to 79 °F — coolest in Aug. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (1009 clear days). The rainy-season months are usually too cloudy to measure and are left blank.

76°78°80°Jan: too few clear satellite days (3)–JFeb: too few clear satellite days (1)–FMar: too few clear satellite days (3)–MApr: too few clear satellite days (9)–AMay: 79 °F mean (78 °F–81 °F), 63 clear satellite daysMJun: 79 °F mean (77 °F–80 °F), 210 clear satellite daysJJul: 78 °F mean (76 °F–78 °F), 278 clear satellite daysJAug: 77 °F mean (76 °F–78 °F), 255 clear satellite daysASep: 78 °F mean (76 °F–79 °F), 139 clear satellite daysSOct: 78 °F mean (76 °F–80 °F), 40 clear satellite daysONov: too few clear satellite days (7)–NDec: too few clear satellite days (1)–D
Surface temperature by month near Sibwesa — 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. tanganyika.si — Sibwesa, Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania: location page and photo gallery (captions by Carsten Thorleif Stabel, Benoit Jonas)

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.

Bathybates (1)

Callochromis (1)

Cunningtonia (1)

Cyathopharynx (2)

Cyprichromis (3)

Eretmodus (1)

Julidochromis (1)

Lamprologus (1)

Lestradea (1)

Neolamprologus (8)

Ophthalmotilapia (2)

Petrochromis (1)

Pseudosimochromis (2)

Telmatochromis (2)

Tropheus (1)

Xenotilapia (3)

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