First African cichlids.

[friend of oscar]

I redecorated my 20 gallon and gave away what few fish wer in there and got 3 african cichlids. I went with malawi cichlids. I got an albino red finned zebra, a female kennyi, and a female auratus. All 3 are doing great. The kennyi is about 3.5 inches, the auratus is about 2 3/4 inches, and the zebra is the same size. I love these little fellows. They are just as personable as any south american cichlid I've ever kept and they eat just as much as them too. Just wanted to share. any input from anybody that has any of these fish would be great.

[Tightdog1]

i basically know nothing about africans but i can say congratulations on changing your tank sucessfully.

[JSchmidt]

Welcome to the world of Rift Lake cichlids. Many of us have found them to be quite addicting...

Personally, I'd be a bit concerned about your tank size. You have three aggressive cichlids in there... probably not fully mature, either. Once they hit maturity, I expect territory battles will be begin. My money is on the kennyi as the only survivor.

If you really want to keep african cichlids in a tank that small, you might consider shell-dwellers. I have no personal experience with these fish, but others here do. Hopefully they'll chime in...

Jim

[Verse914]

congrats! Although you chose some tough as nails mbuna. They will not do well in your tank size. The auratus is known to be one of the toughest mbuna. I would say upgrade your tank asap, before you lose a couple fish.

[friend of oscar]

Thanks for the replies. I really thought they would be fine in that size tank since the max size of those fish are around 4 inches or up to 5. The kennyi and auratus come from a friend of mine and she had them togehter for awhile and they seam to kind of hang out I guess you could the albino zebra joins in. They haven't really claimed any territories that I can see. If they do start getting more aggressive after awhile then I could try to get something smaller like shell dwellers but most of them are too exspensive for me and I don't like them much.