Author biography
Dr. Ad. Konings, the "godfather" of the Three Lakes cichlid, is a world-renowned cichlid expert, photographer, publisher and author. Born in the Netherlands in 1956. Cichlids have been raised since the age of 14. Attending university in the Netherlands, he moved to Germany at the age of 30, where he began writing books and breeding snappers, and founded the Cichlid Press press at the age of 35. He moved to the United States in 1996. In 2007, the "SMG Cichlid Conservation Foundation" was established to do everything in its power to protect the snapper from overfishing. The frequency of field exploration in Africa is maintained twice a year, diving under the lake to shoot, observe, and study the cichlids of the Three Lakes, and the underwater operation time has exceeded 1700 hours so far. His most famous books are "The Natural Habitat of the Mahu Cichlid" and "The Natural Habitat of the Tanhu Cichlid", two biblical illustrated books.
Although I have visited Lake Tanganika many times since 1986, I have never been to the area north-west of Lake uvira between the islands of Uvira and Kavalla. This part of Lake Tan has belonged to the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1991, and when I last visited the country, there were frequent unfavorable news on the news about severe restrictions on the entry of foreigners.
Map of Lake Bertim, Congo
It is not that many foreigners want to go to the country, on the contrary, the government is struggling with domestic problems and sometimes escalating to massacres of entire villages, so it does not want any foreigners to be killed or injured. Because I also don't want to be the figure on the North Congo's weekly casualty statistics table, I have ignored the Congolese part of Lake Tan for the past 20 years. However, it has always been my ideal to include underwater photographs of all areas of Lake Tanganica when writing the new edition of lake Tankanica books, including of course the area along the northwest coast.
Congolese politics in 2011
In May this year I was finally able to dive at a different location between Uvira and Cape Caramba, at the southern tip of the Ubwari peninsula.
It all started with Siegfried. Siegfried Loose sent me an email before Christmas 2010 in which he mentioned that he had arrived in Uvira and worked with the head of science at the Institute of Hydrobiology (CRH) in Hanoi. René Shalukoma get in touch. With its consent, the Institute's personnel equipment was used for an eight-day underwater expedition in the area between Uvira and Cape Caramba.
Siegfried, who plans to make the trip in the last week of May this year, asked me if I would be interested in joining — which is obviously redundant.
We flew to Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, and then took a bus to Uvira in Congo. The situation in northern Congo has improved over the past two years, but an official invitation is still required to enter. I wanted to know if the institute had compressors and cylinders, even if they were old and could be used.
But Siegfried himself is clearly not a novice, and on previous journeys he had left 2 gas cylinders in Burundi with his friend Ivan. Yvan Mugenge there. The only place in Burundi where Yvan can inflate a gas cylinder is at an army garrison in the seaport of Bujumbura for "only" $50 at a time.
The U.S. dollar is the most popular currency in Burundi and northern Congo, but local governments, like businessmen, have come to forget that the value of the dollar lies in the exchange of the local currency, the Burundian franc or Congolese franc.
My diving gear is usually stored in the Red Zebra Lodge in Malawi, so I have to fly to the country first to get it. I spent some days in Malawi trying to find some cichlid species in Monkey Bay Harbor but without success. He then flew from Malawi to Nairobi, Kenya, and had to spend the night at Nairobi Airport to catch an early flight to Bujumbura.
When I arrived in Bujumbura, Siegfried, Yvan, and my friend Martin, who had been instigated by me to come from Holland. Martin Geerts and Siegfried's son, André, have been waiting at the airport for a long time. The five of us set out on our trip to the Congo but we had to stop in Burundi for two days first.
Group photo of the expedition team (second from the right is the author)
We first unloaded our three large Pelican suitcases containing underwater cameras, diving gear and camping gear at the airport and then spent the night at Karera Beach in Burundi. Next we visited Mireille and Jechi of Fishes of Burundi (Editor's Note: The first export agency of Lake Tanganika and the "African Burundi fishery") Jacky Schreyen
Mireille (left) and Siegfried at a fish farm in Burundi
I visited them as early as 1986, when Mireyer's father, the famous Pierre. Pierre Brichard is still alive, and another time in 1991 was on his way with Martin to Kalemie, Zaire.
After welcoming us, Mireye immediately asked if we would like to see a red Trematochromis benthicola. This is the fourth sample they have encountered in years of collection. So we took a moment to take pictures of this exciting sample in the small fish tank.
Extremely rare red Trematochromis benthicola
Mireyer and Jackie have been over 10 years without diving, and some of their compressors and gas cylinders and other equipment are in a mess but for me, they have been lucky and grateful that they have many counterweight straps to lend me. Because I couldn't bring a weight belt from Malawi, Kenya Airways was overweight at $6/kg, and I was already overweight except for the weight belt. Although it was a small $100, I could already fill 2 tanks, and the next day we could snorkel and scuba dive along the shores of Lake Tan in Burundi.
Mireyer also called on her loyal collector, Philippe, to join us in order to find the right dive site.
Although it was mid-May, usually during the dry season, it had rained heavily the night before, and the water near the beach at our hotel was muddy and visibility was basically zero. Fortunately, this is not the case along the rocky shores of bujumbura south.
Expedition to Explore The Point of Discovery in Burundi
Philip asked us to stop at a place called Mucansi, and although we had been driving very close to the lake, we still couldn't see the lake where we stopped because there were a lot of trees and it was on the hill. We ended up finding a very narrow path leading to the lake, but since the rain and dirt were very slippery, especially when we had to balance the diving and photography equipment, it was quite awkward to walk down the almost vertical path.
Although I had no problem using underwater cameras in Malawi, now there is something wrong with Tan Lake and the flash is not on. So the machine shell was opened, the wiring was adjusted, the seal was lubricated, and after two disassembly of the diving equipment, the flash finally worked again.
Then it took me quite a while to find the rock habitat, which was about 100 meters north of where I came in.
Without enough valuable oxygen, I was not able to dive deeper to see if I could find the latest Neolamprologus sp." Bifasciatus Katia "Kadía's second-line bird of paradise (Editor's note: now officially described as Neolamprologus bifasciatus), Mireye showed us samples of this fish received from fishermen at the fish farm. It was still a good dive, with some satisfying photos, and it's certainly worth revisiting again.
Neolamprologus bifasciatus second-line bird of paradise
Our second dive was in Magara, but since we spent so much time in Muchansi, this time we chose the place at the nearest point of simplicity – Makombe, where the rock habitat of the actual Magara is about 150 meters offshore. Its underwater habitat contains more sand than the previous dive sites, and all the varieties I encountered in Muchanxi are available here.
On Sunday, May 22nd, we began crossing the border into congo early.
Coming out of the hotel, we and the driver six people huddled on the overloaded SUV for about half an hour, and we had to return the car to Bujumbura. At the border we used 2 more cars to continue to the institute. Since Siegfried had prepared in advance the necessary documents for all aspects of entry, Martin and I had already sent scanned copies of our passports and obtained visas using the institute's official invitation, so the processing time for our entry was very short.
We were very fortunate that while we crossed the border, the main head of the Institute, Mudwara, known by the authorities for his weekly travels through Uvira and Bujumbura. Dr. Nasambo Muderhwa Nshombo) also reached the border. He led us through several checkpoints and then drove straight to his institute in Uvira.
Institute of Hydrobiology CRH
When we got there, we found Hanoi and others moving equipment to the car to drive to the beach and load the boat we used for our journey. At the same time Dr. Nasampo took us on a tour of the Institute, which was originally built by Belgians and built in 1948.
Dr. Nshombo worked with Japanese researchers at the Institute of Hydrobiology (CRH) in the 1980s and 1990s, but he is best known for his research on scaly fish on Lake Tanganyika.
In the early afternoon we headed to Baraka, 80 km south of Uvira, which will be our base next week. While most of the violence in Congo has now subsided, for security reasons we need to camp in the Baraka church, 15 minutes offshore.
Most of the gear remained in this small boat
It's fine if you don't bring anything with you, but most of the gear left on the ship in baraka 'harbor' still worries me a little. Two institute personnel remained on board to watch over our belongings, one crew member Joseph and the other researcher nicknamed Chuchu, and we camped in the church compound. Moving things back and forth from the lakeshore to the church was tiring, but fortunately there were always a lot of locals to help us.
After the next night, during the day I left my camping stuff in my tent, and we got to know some of the other tourists in the church, and stayed in the yard with them all day, and the days were much easier.
Expedition North Congo Exploration Point
In Congo (and also in Tanzania) you can't just get to a place and start diving; we first have to inform the local authorities (police, army, maritime officials) that we are coming and what our plans are. The first morning In Hanoi (René) spent most of the day dealing with this matter, and it was not until noon that we set off for our first dive on the Ubwari peninsula.
Baraka is in Burton Bay and the entire bay is siltous, without rocky shores like the peninsula's known southern Mboko or southern Kiriza. At first our goal was Chirissa, but because the sky was dark we went to the far north where the sun was shining on the water.
Siegfried relied on sunlight to capture his beloved finned cichlid, and since I hadn't been anywhere in Ubari, I was the same everywhere. We then came ashore at a place called Kizinga, 5 km north of Chirissa.
The beams that form the Ubali Peninsula are made up of extremely steep and sloping mountains, and I expected that the surrounding areas of the peninsula would be deep-water rock habitats, but to my surprise, most of them are transitional habitats with sand and rocks, usually at a depth of only about 20-30 meters. The bottom of the lake is a steep slope mostly covered by sand or a mixture of sediment and sediment.
I was the first to go into the water and spotted the legendary "Caesar II Jasmine" on several huge rock piles.
Tropheus sp.'black' Kiriza Chirisa Golden Butterfly
But apparently there were more problems with the waterproof cover of my camera that had not been solved, and now I had to go back to the boat to get it done, and then the waterproof cover worked perfectly throughout the trip.
I took many pictures of cichlid species, and some of them were completely new to me (not for science), the most impressive of which was the Petrochromis polydon, a more famous variant of the Ubari Peninsula, Texas Red Polydon Dragon King Snapper) Dragon King Snapper is in what I think is a regional variant of the Polyden Dragon King Snapper – this variant has a cobalt-blue male that looks like a bubble (starting from the tail) in a blood-red dye, almost like a fake. The red color of their tail and dorsal fin varies from male to male, but overall they all contrast sharply with their gray-blue body color.
Texas Red Dragon King Snapper,
Petrochromis polydon Ubwari
Ubari Pauliden Dragon King
Another notable species of cichlid is a native variant of the deep-water blue wave (Cyathopharynx foae), whose males have spectacular body colours. At every dive site between Uvira and Cape Caramba, we encountered almost the same deep-water blue waves (C. foae), Ophthalmotilapia ventralis (Editor's note: individuals in the region are currently classified as Ophthalmotilapia heterodonta), and O. Nasuta) variant.
Cyathopharynx foae Caramba
Calamba Deep Water Blue Wave
Ophthalmotilapia heterodonta Kizinga
Chisinga heterodox lantern
Ophthalmotilapia nasuta Ubwari
Ubari big nose lantern
The species with the most regional variations is undoubtedly the black butterfly (Tropheus sp. ‘black’）。 A variant of the wide yellow stripe on the body and dorsal fin appears to appear in an area about 12 kilometers west of the peninsula, but the next day I'm going to switch to photographing an all-black variant at Cape Banza, the northern tip of Ubari.
On the eastern side of the northern tip of the peninsula is a headland called Muzimu, where I was launched the next morning. The rocky mountain of Muzimu is itself a peninsula, and its northern side of a land that connects the continent of the Ubali Peninsula is made up of fist-sized stones. It's hard to walk on it, and there are no fishing boats moored here.
Before we started diving, Hanoi had to go through the formalities with the local authorities, but the process took less than an hour. There is a continuous belt of rocks from Muzimu to Banza Point, T. sp. The 'black' (black butterfly) variant forms a separate population here.
Tropheus sp. 'black' Muzimu Muzi Wood Black Butterfly
Here is a special species of black butterfly (T. sp. 'black') is not very appealing, especially compared to kaiser II moorii on the other side of the peninsula, I found that in some varieties of hair color adult fish, there are all-black individuals, and individuals with yellow patches on the sides, and some individuals with extra yellow dots on the head always appear together.
Some of the other interesting species I found were the Neolamprologus longicaudatus (Cape Banza is their standard origin) and a new species of paradise bird, the N. Niger bird of paradise (N. niger), and Eretmodus sp. 'ubwari') (Editor's note: now classified as Tanganicodus irsacae sharp-billed fox).
Neolamprologus longicaudatus dragon base bird of paradise
Neolamprologus niger Muzimu
Muzi Muniger Bird of Paradise
Tanganicodus irsacae sharp-billed fox
The next day of diving we were going back to the other side of the peninsula, near Chirissa.
The rock habitat there is made up of medium-sized stones near the shore of the lake, and I can't find any stones below a depth of about 3 meters. Still, the dive was good because I could photograph Neolamprologus kungweensis, a breed I hadn't seen underwater before.
Neolamprologus kungweensis Kiriza
Chirissa four-eyed shell
In this population, both males and females have a spot on their dorsal fins, especially females. It looks like a monocular spot, that is, a light-colored circle surrounds a black spot, but in fact, a black spot has 2 white spots on both sides, giving the impression of a surrounding point. Some females have 2 such spots while some males do not. The males of these tiny cichlids are smaller than 4 cm long and live on the flat, open mud floors.
Broodstock
They hide in vertical tunnels they have dug in the mud, 5-10 cm deep, and they spawn in the tunnels of females, with non-sticky eggs all concentrated at the bottom of the tunnels. The fry are so small that they are largely invisible when they are not moving, and are guarded by both parents.
Wednesday, May 25 was a long day as we wanted to sail the entire east coast of Ubari to Cape Kalamba at the southern tip to dive. We expected to stay in the lake for at least 10 hours and informed the military of the baraka "port" that we would return after nightfall. Luckily we arrived faster than expected and returned in the late evening.
It wasn't very interesting for me to see the southernmost point of the peninsula on Google Maps because it was a shallow water transition habitat, so we chose a rock point north of the shallow water area to launch, which was our deep rock habitat. The stones here are also almost invisible below the water depth of 25 meters, and the transitional habitats below are generally all sand.
But it's still an interesting place, as I found two different species of butterflies in a rock habitat that shares the upper layer. The Black Butterfly (T. Moorii), known to Aqua players as Caramba Moorii. sp. The 'black') variant and the Tropheus brichardi variant known as Green Moorii (Editor's Note: This regional variant is now classified as the Tropheus sp.'lunatus' green butterfly), and the two share this habitat.
Tropheus sp. ‘black’ Caramba
Calamba Black Butterfly
Tropheus sp.'lunatus' Caramba
Calamba Green Butterfly
In some other interesting or unusual tamales I saw a dark yellow Julidochromis regani variant, which is different from the body color of their variants/breeds around the island of Kipili in Tanzania, with 4 regular black lines on their bodies.
Julidochromis regani Caramba
Calambarrigan Phoenix
Having completed the plan on time, we crossed Cape Kalamba to the south of the mainland, but due to the heavy rain the night before, the underwater visibility on the shores of the lake was almost zero. This is because two permanent rivers and various intermittent rivers have flooded silt-filled water into the bay that separates southern Ubari from the mainland.
The town of Kazima is large and there are possible dive sites nearby, so it may take us at least an hour to get a diving permit there. So we didn't get into the water and went back to Baraka. We completed our mission as planned, and we had already divened in Cape Kalamba, while the dive sites far south along the Congolese coast had to be saved for our next trip.
In some ways, the habitat around the Ubaly Peninsula disappointed me because I didn't find an open deep rocky lakeshore, but the diversity of its catalpa species compensated for my regrets. Over the next three days I will find the best dive sites in this part of Lake Tan very close to Uvira.
To be continued...
Photo: Ad. Konings
Compilation: A Beautiful Past
Beauty says: This is Dr. Cornings' 2011 adventure travelogue and one of his most important experiences in countless field explorations of Tan Lake. I am honored to have an authorized translator. The first version was released last year when the ifish Three Lakes was not yet born. The reason for the rearrangement is that the current me and more than a year ago my understanding of the Three Lakes are more than a dozen floors apart, and many translations are just "the fur of the Three Lakes". The classification and geographical distribution of the species of the Three Lakes presented to you today will be a "complete version" that even I am surprised by.
Every time I look at the map of the Ubari Peninsula, there is a strong feeling of strength
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