can some one help please cichlid setup

[pompeyjoe]

hello there would appreciate it if any body could help please. ive been looking at some of these fish find them pretty cool and nice looking

i have a 60gallon 4ft bow fronted tank
with a rena xp3 external filter
fine gravel substrate

its all up and running cycled and every think i have fish in there at the momment but they are being rehomed into my other tank.
was woundering if anybody on here could tell me if any of these fish can be keept together in my tank, a little list of wich ones. and how many of each will go into my tank please.





Nimbochromis venustus... common name... giraffe cichlid kalingo

Sciaenochromis fryeri.... electric blue.... electric blue hap

Labidochromis caeruleus... yellow lab.... electric yellow.. canarycichlid

Metriaclima estherae... red zebra.....orange zebra

Pseudotropheus sp... Yellow Tail Acei


non cichlids that will go with cichlids

spotted synadontis (Synodontis Multipunctatus). Pleco/catfish
Ancistrus pleco/catfish
Cochliodon sp pleco/catfish



manky thanks

 

[dw1305]

This forum is mainly S.A dwarf cichlids

Hi Pompey Joe,
This isn't really the right forum for Lake Malawi Cichlids.
Most peoples interests are either SA dwarfs, Apistogramma, Dicrossus etc. Laetacara etc. or West Africans forest cichlids - Nanochromis etc.

Whilst they are all Cichlids, our ones like soft water, low stocking, plants etc. so they have very different in requirement from the Mbuna.

Try one of the specialist Malawi ones,
<http://www.lakemalawi.co.uk/forum3/> perhaps?

A lot of people keep Malawis in the south UK, because our tap water is very hard and calcium rich. In fact here (near Bath) our tap water has almost exactly the same hardness and pH as Lake Malawi, although it comes out of the tap a fair bit colder.
cheers Darrel

 

[PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn]

hello there would appreciate it if any body could help please. ive been looking at some of these fish find them pretty cool and nice looking

i have a 60gallon 4ft bow fronted tank
with a rena xp3 external filter
fine gravel substrate

its all up and running cycled and every think i have fish in there at the momment but they are being rehomed into my other tank.
was woundering if anybody on here could tell me if any of these fish can be keept together in my tank, a little list of wich ones. and how many of each will go into my tank please.





Nimbochromis venustus... common name... giraffe cichlid kalingo

Sciaenochromis fryeri.... electric blue.... electric blue hap

Labidochromis caeruleus... yellow lab.... electric yellow.. canarycichlid

Metriaclima estherae... red zebra.....orange zebra

Pseudotropheus sp... Yellow Tail Acei


non cichlids that will go with cichlids

spotted synadontis (Synodontis Multipunctatus). Pleco/catfish
Ancistrus pleco/catfish
Cochliodon sp pleco/catfish



manky thanks

ancistrus maybe, personally dont like adding them. synos are teh only cats I like to mix with them.

personally I thin Nibochromis are too big for a 4foot tank, they the sciaenochromis would fit.

but first off, what are you after, a Mbuna tank or a Hap tank. the reason I mention this is they do need differing environments, and its hard to provide those in a small 4foot tank.I've got a mix myself, but their in a 6by2by2 tank, so lots of room for all of them.

a lot comes down to the individual character of the fish, I've kept M. estherae, and IME they are only aggressive conspecifically, however a lot of others have them down as aggressive fish.

this means that they are generally incompatible with haps and peacocks, (though not in my case, as I have a pair that are quite happy in the 6by2by2 (did start out with 1m4f, but the females are nasty toward each other )

so I would either go with 7Labidochromis caeruleus, 7 Pseudotropheus acei and 7 Maylandia estherae, or 7 of both caeruleus and acei and a few smaller haps, (protomelas,sp, copadiochromis sp, aulonocara,

 

[thomasp9021]

i agree you will have to choose between haps and mbuna not only do they have differing habitats but also different diets i would suggest going with the mbuna because the haps really like a lots of room to swim.

good luck

 

[tjudy]

I have had plenty of success with smaller mbuna types with Aulonacara, though I agree that tanks in a 75 gallon or higher sizes are probably better. One of the best Malawi setups I have had was a 7f gallon with a 2 male/6 female colony of Aulonacara beanschi kept with a breeding colony of Labidochromis chisamulae (did I spell that right). The set up included a high pile of rock in one corner that tapered to the front and also to the opposite side leaving 3/4 of the bottom without rocks... just sand. I placed a small pile of rocks in the middle of the tank at the opposite end as the big pile in the corner. The peacocks pretty much stayed out on the sand unless they were disturned or looking to breed (they usually selected protected spawning sites) while the little Labidochromis tayed in the rocks. I think the key for feeding is to do your homework and stay away from the very few mbuna that are actually highly herbivorous. Most of the common mbuna are lagae combers and utilize a lot of invertebrate protein. The genus Labidochromis are pickers. They other 'secret' is not to over feed them. Bloat issues are for more associated with overfeeding and poor water quality than protein content.

 

[PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn]

this shows the basic layout of my tank (need to get some newer photos)

I have 2 2'by2' panels of eggcrate in the corners which support the rock (all 213KG (440lb+)

there is the more open space in this tank than your tank has in total. so I'm able to provide both habitats in the same tank,

with regards diet, thats a non-issue really. if you use a good quality food (eg NLS) then you can just feed that to them ( I feed ALL my fish NLS from top feeders to bottom feeders, liveberarers to cichlids and catfish.)