Aquarist Atlas
Collection point · Lake Tanganyika · Tanzania

Ulwile Island

oo-LWEE-leh EYE-land (approx.)

Also traded as “Ulwile Island (Kushangaza)”

The atlas records 28 collection-point forms from Ulwile Island, across 18 genera.

7.4723°S 30.5782°E

Ulwile Island is a small island in Tanzania's Kipili Archipelago on Lake Tanganyika's eastern shore, under 1 km north-north-east of Musi Point.

Where it is

Ulwile Island is on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in its southern third (286 mi south of the lake's northern tip).

Nearest collection points: Musi Point 0.5 mi south · Ngosa Point 1.4 mi south · Lupita Island 1.7 mi north-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: Mpulungu (south basin) (~155 km) — Temperature 24.5 °C · pH 8.9 · Conductivity 662 µS/cm · Visibility (Secchi) 11.9 m

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 (1269 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 (2)–JFeb: too few clear satellite days (1)–FMar: too few clear satellite days (9)–MApr: 81 °F mean (80 °F–83 °F), 14 clear satellite daysAMay: 80 °F mean (78 °F–81 °F), 93 clear satellite daysMJun: 78 °F mean (77 °F–80 °F), 239 clear satellite daysJJul: 77 °F mean (76 °F–78 °F), 322 clear satellite daysJAug: 77 °F mean (76 °F–78 °F), 308 clear satellite daysASep: 78 °F mean (77 °F–79 °F), 192 clear satellite daysSOct: 80 °F mean (78 °F–81 °F), 72 clear satellite daysONov: 81 °F mean (80 °F–82 °F), 15 clear satellite daysNDec: too few clear satellite days (2)–D
Surface temperature by month near Ulwile Island — 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

Site photographs place Ulwile alongside a cluster of neighbouring islands — Lupita, Mvuna and Kerenge — in this stretch of the archipelago. Captions here connect the area to Neolamprologus timidus, though they are inconsistent about which nearby point — Ulwile Island, Musi Point, or Mvuna Island — is the species' type locality.

Sources
  1. tanganyika.si — Ulwile Island, Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania: location page and photo gallery (captions by African Diving Ltd, Firelight Safaris Tanzania, David Lundvall, butforthesky.com, Kipili Lodge)

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.

Altolamprologus (1)

Boulengerochromis (1)

Chalinochromis (1)

Cunningtonia (1)

Cyathopharynx (1)

Cyprichromis (1)

Eretmodus (1)

Haplotaxodon (1)

Interochromis (1)

Julidochromis (1)

Lamprologus (2)

Neolamprologus (7)

Ophthalmotilapia (2)

Perissodus (2)

Petrochromis (1)

Telmatochromis (1)

Tropheus (2)

Xenotilapia (1)

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