Snorkel Lake Malawi And See The Colorful Mbuna

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Surrounded by endless palm fringed beaches, Lake Malawi is a gigantic reef tank where you can snorkel and scuba in the clear, warm water and see over 500 indigenous species of tropical fish, including Cichlids. For the fishing keeping enthusiast, the lake is one of the few places in the world where one can observe the fishes they collect in their natural habitat.

Lake Malawi is famous for its cichlids, popular in the aquarium trade. Within this group of fish we have a subgroup called the tilapiines, locally and more popularly referred to as the mbuna (pronounced um-boo-na), which means "rock dweller." Mbuna are small and both sexes often show bright coloration, though in many species the females may be brownish overall.

Lake Malawi National Park at the southern end of the lake was established to protect the unique diversity of the tropical fish, some not found anywhere else on earth. The Nankhumba Peninsula, forms the centerpiece of a miniature archipelago of twelve islands, and encompasses Cape Maclear, where visitors are in easy range of a number of legendary dive sites where for scuba and snorkeling.

Divers and snorkelers can't believe the variety of fish they encounter and how close they get to them. You almost have to push them away to take pictures. You will be knocked out by how much more dazzling and vivid their bright colors appear when they are right in front of your nose.

Hang out here for a few days, canoe, scuba, and snorkel. It is said that after a while one actually become blasé about the colorful mbunas. Lake Malawi is an African cichlid paradise. Forget the Big Five - this underwater game viewing experience matches anything that the African continent has to offer in the game parks.