Mixing Malawis and Tangs?

It is best not to mix lakes,especially if you are jsut starting out with africans.

Since you have a 55g and want a colorful "peaceful" mix i would suggest sticking to some of the less aggresive mbuna from lake malawi.

Ps. saulosi
yellow labs
iodotropeus sprengerae
Ps.acei

These are a few of the less aggresive species and should make a nice tank. IN a 55g you can probably have about 8-10 fish. PIck one or 2 of the species above. You will mostly likely have to buy juvies or unsexed fish.If this is the case then buy a larger group and weed out the extra males as they mature.

If you decide on species we can help more.

Adding plants can be hit or miss. Some poeple can grow any type of plant in their mbuna tank and the fish don't eat them.Others can grow hardier plants like java ferns and anubias.WHile others(like me) are unable to grow any plants as the fish eat them.

I have tried java ferns on many occasions and the fish pick at them and nibble on them constantly so they never really grow and eventually thema re completely eaten.

So if you want mbuna and plants try some java ferns or anubias first to see how the fish do with them.

since you are new to africans check out www.cichlid-forum.com its one of the best sites for them and its where i got the most info when i started out. The people on their forum are africna experts.

Yes they are great. When choosing your yellow labs though try and find the best stock you can. Sometimes now at LFS and petstores they have low quality labs that show black on the body(especially under the chin) and have barring. Try to find one with a pure yellow body(should show no barring at all) with only black on the fins.

Just a suggestion if you want to have good looking labs you see in pics.

one thing i noticed about mixng them, is that say you have a venustus from malawi and a calvus from tangiknianwahtever, the venestus will go over and bite at the side of the calvus expecting it to swim away, but the damned calvus instead hold their ground and they actualy let the venustus bite them, its wierd! so i dunno if that helps