New Cichlid keeper - some basic questions and checks

[nzo]

Hi All,

Great forum, and I spent all last night reading
Anyway, I`m about to get going with my first Malawi tank.
If I list my setup, I would be grateful for any pointers for changes / additions.

First, I have a 60x18x18 tank, 318L. (Long tanks seem to be the advisable for this)
I have Fluval 403 attached, which apparently does 1200L / Hour, so should be sufficient.
A good amount (50Kg) of coral sand for substrate and will have 50Kg of "ocean rock" to aquascape with in the next 2 days.
The tank is cycled and PH 7.6 (I am lucky with my tap water, but I used PH-UP in the tank prep)

So - to my specific questions.
I`ve been compiling a list of inhabitants, for colour, compatability and interest and so far have:

Electric Yellow Lab - 1 x male, 3 or 4 females
Red Zebra or derivative - 1x male and 3 or 4 females
Blue Johanni 1x male and 3 or 4 females

Still think there's room for another colour / mix, also will select a nice synodontis and perhaps a school of danios / other dithers.

I`m up to speed on the haps/mbuna/peacock not mixing well (pity) so, considering that I wanted a nice 'scaped tank, then the mbunas will be the choice. I also expect to have to cull / remove a few so am prepared to put a few extra in so as to get a good mix and see what works out. My LFS will take fish back (although at a very reduced price), however, I will have to travel some distance to get the fish I want, so I should choose carefully.
I also deduce that I should get them all at once...?

With my current selection, what else would be a good compatible (and visual) addition? I am open to completely new combination suggestions for my setup of course.

I plan to purchase juves, so I may get a bigger amount due to sexing issues and also being able to select the most compatible ones to keep.

I have kept almost every bio in this tank over the years, except marine, and this is the most exciting potential setup I think so far :dance2:

forgot to add: Put some serious lighting in too....

 

[liv2padl]

a group of seither of these would look nice and be compatible in your tank.

OR

 

[Weezer]

Your tank is 84 gal's...so far your tally is up to 15, we are stocked with 12 fish, I feel they will get big some day, so i don't want alot of small fish today just to have to get rid of some later to make room...Can't wait to see some pic''s when it's done..........

 

[nzo]

Your tank is 84 gal's...so far your tally is up to 15, we are stocked with 12 fish, I feel they will get big some day, so i don't want alot of small fish today just to have to get rid of some later to make room...Can't wait to see some pic''s when it's done..........

Well, I put in 2 sets so far to see how things go.
Johanni 1xmale + 2x female
Yellow labs: 1xmale (best guess) + 2x female (best guess)

Guess I didn't cycle my tank properly cos the nitrite is up, but receding slowly with a daily 30% change these last 3 days. I forgot about the extended risk with higher PH, so I`m going to stabilise before adding the full compliment.

I`m so happy with these. The behaviour is awesome (johannis at least). The male is a right little industrialist and leaving nice piles of coral sand about the place already

All are eating well and things are looking good (nitrite will be stable in 2 days by my reckoning). I have planted out with Java fern and one other plant I read on here is tollerant and hardy - A.. something. They don't appear to be under attack yet.

I have to travel some way to the nearest specialist lfs, so I need to think carefully about stocking, but there might be a chance of some flavus shortly (I like the look of them - thanks!)

Only seen one face-off so far between the male johanni and one of the labs, otherwise good natured (but timid)

All are about 2in - 2.5 in

Also, interesting that the LFS guy said that he always gets a male orientated shipment.. females were not in a suitable ratio.. they had tanks full of males... bah...

 

[GirlieGirl8521]

I would up the number of Labs to 6-7 or so, and keep the others at 4-5 in a group. Labs aren't as aggressive (usually) than the others, so have a larger group of them.

Some other suggestions that would mix well with what you have are Cynotilapia afra, Metriaclima greshakei (not sure if they would try to breed with Red Zebras though), and Acei, although you can only get what you can find. I'd try not to mix different types of Pseudotropheus though, so if you can find the Flavus and want them, go with them. I think they look different enough than the Acei though that you could have both.

In that size tank, I'd probably shoot for 5-6 groups of 4-5, with a max of maybe 25-30 fish. Some may think thats too much, but IMO overstocking is best with Mbuna, especially if you have filtration to handle the load. A 5ft tank with alot of rockwork can certainly handle 30 fish IMO.

 

[nzo]

Well, there might be some acei in next week, so I`ll be looking.
Although I created lots of caves in my initial setup, I see already that 1 johanni has already "claimed" about 20% of the tank with his little castle that includes 3 of the caves I`ve already made.

Also, I think I might need another 25kg (already have 50kg) of rock, as i have been suprised by the way that certain areas have been "favoured" by most of them.. Really, I need to make bigger caves

 

[Coler]

Glad you're enjoying them Sounds like a tank with huge potential !

I see already that 1 johanni has already "claimed" about 20% of the tank with his little castle that includes 3 of the caves I`ve already made.

This is why people like to overstock; there can, I think, be an uncomfortable situation with smaller numbers where the particularly dominant fish claim territories that are too big. More numbers in there makes everyone have to watch their backside a bit and thins out aggression, so no one or two fish is getting constant abuse.

When you add new fish adding in groups of 4 or 5 is good, I think; keeping a close eye for spikes in ammonia and nitrite as the bacteria adjust. And if you have aggression issues its never a bad idea to re-arrange the rocks and caves to shake out the personalities a bit.

Just on your filtration; I would consider having a back up filter. Maybe a couple of internal fluvals, one at each end ? I'm really new to this myself though so don't take my reccomendation on what kind you should get; it is however a good idea to have some built in redundancy.

You should find that your coral subtrate buffers your water nicely so you don't need the Ph up. Fish will adapt to a Ph which is reasonably close to what is said to be ideal, given a good acclimitisation (my malawis are in 7.8) and trying to tweak your tap water Ph with chemicals seems fraught with complications.

Post some pics ! I love seeing nice big malawi/tang tanks

 

[magakitty]

We have a 55 gal tank - and we have a couple of peacocks in with our Mbunas, but they were tank mates at the LFS as well, so they are used dto each other. We run two filters on ours, both emperors - a 400 and a 280.

 

[Robkaye222]

you said you were lucky with the tap water plus the crushed coral and rock helps the PH i wouldnt even bother messing with any PH increase/decreaser

 

[nzo]

you said you were lucky with the tap water plus the crushed coral and rock helps the PH i wouldnt even bother messing with any PH increase/decreaser

Well, I put PH up in at first, but I found that I really didn't need it.

Interestingly enough, after my johanni finished digging to Australia, I came home today to find him doing the cha-cha with one of the females in his little home. However, I checked later and none of the females look like they are carrying anything and both feeding. I`ve had fish before that simulate egg laying etc, but I watched carefully but couldn't see any eggs during the process - (male and female spiral about and it looks like she`s dropping / he's fertilizing / she picks up) but no sign on the female of carrying.

lol. They've only been in there a week!!


photos soon of the new tank - camera is not working