Lake Malawi is the ninth largest lake in the world and is home to up to between 850 and 1,000 species of fish, estimated as the largest number of fish species of any lake in the world with over 90% of the species being endemic to the lake.

Many of these beautiful fish are species that we see in tropical fish tanks in our homes.

The area around Cape Maclear (Lake Malawi National Park) in the southern part of the lake is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site and UNESCO refer to it as an area of global importance for biodiversity conservation due particularly to its fish diversity. 

Lake Malawi’s cichlids are considered of equal value to science as the finches of the Galapagos Islands remarked on by Charles Darwin or the honeycreepers of Hawaii.

Keen to learn more about Malawi? Visit https://rippleafrica.org/malawi-facts-and-figures/