dionysios
04-12-2008, 2:48 PM
What would you do with a 75 gal to create an amazing lake malawi tank.
What fish are relatively easy to obtain and would go well together? How would you decorate the tank? I am new to cichlids and I think malawi's are very colorful. I just don't know which ones or how many to get. Can you help me out?
nickmcmechan
04-12-2008, 2:54 PM
i have a 75g malawi (see my sig) with about 100kg of ocean rock against the back
lots of options - first decision is really do you want to do mbuna, peacocks or haps. I would reccomend, for a really colourful and active setting mbuna. There's lots of good info on here to get you reading www.cichlidforum.com (http://www.cichlidforum.com)
Think in terms of say 4 or 5 groups of 3 or 4 fish, 1 male and 2 or 3 females of each. The nice thing about Mbuna is that the females are just as colourful as the males.
Regarding what is easily obtainable; totally depends on what is in your area - check out the local shops, and come back with the options. There are some mixes and indeed fish which are often best avoided.
You will also want some heavy filtration - not sure what to put on a 75, I don't have one myself :D and a ton of rock; enough to stack up to the water level in a couple of large piles. For safety, put down some egg-crate plastic stuff for stability. Substrate - crushed coral is great, there are some cool black substrates specifically for these kind of fish, which really make the colours pop out, if your Ph is high enough already (around 8ish) you can just use sand.
You can also put some plants in there - Java Ferns will do fine, maybe some anubias, and some people seem to be able to keep Amazon swords.