Lake Tanganyika is the seventh biggest lake among all lakes around the world, with an area of about 34 000 km². The lake is 650 km long and about 60 km broad at the broadest part. The maximum depth is about 1470 metres, which ranks it as the second deepest lake of the world. The Lake is bordered by Burundi, Democratic rep. Congo, Zambia and Tanzania.
This great lake belongs to the african great rift lakes, and it's one of the oldest lakes known. Under the very long period of time that the lake has been isolated from the other african lakes, there had been developed more than 200 different species of cichlids that are endemic in the Lake Tanganyika. The species are specialized to exist in the many different habitats in the lake, many species have developed very interesting breeding behaviours.
Tanganyika cichlids are among the most beautiful and interesting fishes that could be kept in an aquarium.

	Photo © Michael Persson
An example of a cichlid with an interesting breeding behaviour is <Lamprologus> stappersi which spawns in empty shells from the Neothauma-snail.

Short facts about Lake Tanganyika

Watertemp. of the surface: 24-27.5 ºC
pH: 8.8-9.3
Conductivity: 550-600 µS
Length: 650 km
Area: 34 000km²
Maximum depth: 1470m