With a face-mask or goggles, you can explore a whole new world in the shallow water. You will not see fish everywhere; they cluster where food is abundant. There will generally be many near the stream mouth, where the water is well aerated and food is constantly entering the lake. Turn over large stones (but replace them as you found them) and you may see small dark catfish (Lophiobagrus, see 1), speckled "eels" (Mastacembelus, 2) and perhaps some freshwater crabs (3). The latter look just like sea-crabs but have developed a far greater degree of parental care. The eggs of sea-crabs hatch into free-floating planktonic larvae which leave the mother and are mostly eaten by predators. In contrast the female lake-crab keeps her sags clasped closely beneath her tail, and continues to carry her young about for some time after they have hatched, thus giving them protection when they most need it.

Offshore from the beach, the sandy bottom supports less variety, and is more disturbed by the activity of fishermen. However, algae and waterweeds grow in the sand, and invertebrates burrow beneath it, and these provide some food for fish. Here you may see the slender sand-colored Xenotilapia (4) feeding on the bottom, and another cichlid, Cyathopharynx furcifer (5), whose large blue males construct circular craters in the sand as arenas for courtship and breeding.

In water about 3 meters deep, there are burrowing clams up to 15 cms long, which leave only the tips of their shells showing above the sand surface as they continually filter food particles out of the water.

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If you swim out into deep water, where there is no distracting background, you may see the Lake Tanganyika jellyfish (11), a nearly transparent, fragile pulsating disc about up to 2 cms across. Freshwater jellyfish are unusual, most species being marine. This species is harmless to swimmers.

Hippos and crocodiles occur in the lake, but these days they are rarely seen in the more populated areas such as the shoreline of Gombe. Large crocodiles require undisturbed sandbanks where they can sunbathe or bury their eggs, and such conditions are absent from much of the lakeshore. Small crocodiles sometimes wander along the coast but are not dangerous to bathers.

Special Thanks to Thomson Safaris and Tanzania National Parks for contributing Tanzanian information.

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