I am finishing up the cycling portion of my setup, on my new 110 gallon aquarium. I would like to stock it with some colorful cichlids, but being a newbie, I am not familiar with scientific names. Therefore, I dont excatly know what kinds would be the best to put in. I do know that I would like some blues, some oranges, and some yellows. Btw, I want them to be from Lake Malawi, if at all possible, My ph is at 8-8.2. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
hey im a total newbie as well and dont know much about cichlids, but I found a good chiclid site that u could read profiles and see pics of different fish on;
with that big of a tank you can probably have a good mix of almost any of the mbuna commonly seen at lfs, provided plenty of rockwork and hide-outs. some guidelines to remember are that if you get different species of the same genus, for example labidochromis caeruleus and perlmutt, they could interbreed. also, if you get a group of the same species, try to get mostly females and just one male, or else the males will fight a lot more. here are some commonly sold mbuna: Yellow Lab Lab. perlmutt Ps. Socolofi Red Zebra Blue Zebra Kenyi Bumblebee Acei
there are a lot more than these out there, but this should get you started thinking about some of the most common ones. but please, remember to do your own research on every fish you decide to buy before you buy it, paying special attention to the agressiveness level of each one.
I've been doing research on some fish for quality comparisons, and read some papers on the Red Zebras. I am getting some info saying that they could be a pseudotropheus and some that say it could be maylandia/ metriaclima. My question is, will they interbreed with the pseudotropheus if I decided to put them in the same tank?
Also, I read that a gravel substrate for mbunas it no good. Does anybody have any thoughts on that? Right now I have 80lbs of crushed coral and 20 lbs of african mix in my tank now. Does this mean that I'll have to take it all out?
i am pretty sure the zebras can interbreed with the pseudotropheus species. as far as gravel goes i think "no good" would be a little too strong... i think they like sand the best as it imitates their natural lake bottom, but i wouldn't go as far as to say you CAN'T have gravel with mbuna. they would do just fine with the crushed coral and whatnot in my opinion, although it might not bring out their most natural behaviors/colors/etc. i would not dump out all the stuff you already bought unless you are striving to recreate the most natural environment for them possible, in which case, plain brown sand would probably be best.
Should I at least take some gravel out to make it easier for them to dig or is there something I can add so that I can give them a flat surface?
What types of catfish are compatible for the mbunas? I looked around on the net and they say I could put in some syndontis, but I haven't been able to find much about them. Most of the ones I saw need a lower ph. The syndontis multipunctatus looks ok, but I'm not to keen on the idea of their fry eating the mbunas' fry. Are there any more options?
Thanks again.
newbie here too, I cannot input on the gravel issue, but just getting one of my own, I really like this jewel cichlid I got from a friend who was going to send it down the toilet if no one wanted it because "it never swam around" it just kinda hid out behind some rocks
I had a firemouth that did the same thing until I switched the gravel color. The gravel was from a smaller tank up and running, so I wasn't worried about starting over the bacteria. Any way since then he makes himself seen quite often. Hopefully yours will do the same, just make sure you water conditions are up to par.
Does this sound like it would work?
4 labidochromis caeruleus
4 metriaclima estherae
4 labeotropheus trewavasae
4 melanochromis johannii
1 common pleco
1 nimbochromis polystigma ( can be moved )
maybe some catfish, but not sure what kind.
