The composition of the fatty acids in muscle and heart tissue of seven fish species, Nile perch (Lates niloticus), Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), marbled lungfish (Protopterus aethiopicus), African catfish (Clarias gariepinus), Lake Victoria squeaker (Synodontis victoriae), Bagrus docmas, and Tilapia zilli, from two locations in Lake Kyoga and one location in Lake Victoria was chemometrically determined. The muscle tissue was very lean, with an average of 3.4 mg total fatty acids per g tissue. The lipid level in the heart tissue was approximately five times higher than in the muscle tissue, with an average of 15.5 mg total fatty acids per g tissue. The n-3/n-6 level in the muscles was 1.7 +/- 0.7 and in the heart tissue 1.0 +/- 0.4. The muscle tissue contained an average of 46 mg cholesterol per 100 g, and the heart tissue contained about five times as much. Plasmalogens were detected in 7-8% of the amounts of total fatty acids in both muscle and heart tissue. The seven species had large differences (P < 0.05) in the fatty acid composition for both muscle and heart tissue. Within the species there were differences between fish from the populations in the three locations, although the population differences were smaller than the species differences. These differences appear to be controlled more closely by genetics/transcriptomics than by the diet.