Silaf Rocks
SEE-lahf ROKS (approx.)
Also traded as “Silaf Roks”
The atlas records 6 collection-point forms from Silaf Rocks, across 5 genera.
7.1079°S 30.5028°E
Silaf Rocks is a group of boulders off the coast of Mpimbwe Point, the northernmost tip of the larger Cape Mpimbwe, on Lake Tanganyika's Tanzanian shore.
Where it is
Silaf Rocks is on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in its southern third (261 mi south of the lake's northern tip).
Nearest collection points: Kemp 0.2 mi south · Msalaba 0.6 mi south-east · Kolwe Point 0.7 mi south-west
Shore, third and distances are measured from the coordinates above against the lake’s mapped outline.
The name
The name comes from the Arabic word zarafah, “giraffe”, for the towering boulders. (Source: tanganyika.si)
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.
Nearest measured station: Mpulungu (south basin) (~195 km) — Temperature 24.5 °C · pH 8.9 · Conductivity 662 µS/cm · Visibility (Secchi) 11.9 m
This site
Surface temperature here
Across Apr–Nov, monthly means run 77 °F to 80 °F — coolest in Jul. Measured by satellite 1995–2023: the daily median of clear readings within 10 km of the site (1257 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
African Diving describes them as "towering" boulders and says the name derives from the Arabic word 'zarafah', meaning giraffe.
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.