Help choosing Lake Malawi's

L

lippy415

AC Members
Apr 29, 2007
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So the tank is cycling away and now I'm getting excited about fish! First off, I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I have a newbie question about cichlids, so wasn't sure which to choose.

I have a 125 gal and would like to have Lake Malawi cichlids. I will be ordering from liveaquaria. Here are the ones I like:

electric blue: sciaenochromis ahli
electric yellow: labidochromis caeruleus
blue peacock: aulonocara nyassae
yellow peacock: aulonocara sp.
albino peacock: aulonocara sp.
demasoni: psudotropheus demasoni
red zebra: pseudotropheus zebra
yellowfin borleyi: copadichromis borleyi
acei: psuedotropheus sp. "acei"

Since I am doing fishless cycling, I think I can add a bunch of fish at one time rather than a few here and there. I also heard this reduces the fish from becoming territorial. I think I will overcrowd as well to reduce aggression.

So do you think those will all get along? I believe from cichlidforum it says to only get one kind of pseudotropheus, so I might have to cut my list down and choose between the acei, red zebra, and demasoni.

Once I get the right types of fish figured out, I was thinking like 4 of each kind? At liveaquaria they are just 1" long and babies so they can't tell if they are male/female. Is that okay? I am not interested in breeding, but I don't want there to be trouble with the wrong ratios.

Any suggestions?

Erin
 
I was thinking about adding one or two of the syndontis catfish too. Is that a good idea?

Okay, I thought syndontis catfish was one kind of fish. I just looked it up on liveaquaria and there are 8 different kinds. Are they all compatible with Malawi's?
 
Not sure about catfish, but for the malawi cichlids, id go with a couple of each, instead of 1 of each. I'm not saying go get 2 of everything on your list, but I would go with like 2 electric yellows, 2 electric blues, and so on. most fish from malawi if im not mistaken prefer groups, if they dont then at least capatibility.
 
small groups and all males. Syds are okay.
 
I would do two of each for the peacocks and the mbunas. As for the haps (Ahlis and Borleyis) I would only do one of each.

For the catfish. I would suggest either only one or a group of 5-6. Just two will fight and tear each other up, where as in a group they will school and not fight.
 
When you say all males - liveaquaria does not tell you the sex because they are so small. Is that okay? Are there other sites that tell you if you are getting a male or female? Regarding the catfish, if that is the case then I will get just one. Have you seen the prices of those things?! They were between $20-70 so there is no way I can swing 5 or 6 of them. Thanks for the scoop though, I'm glad I didn't decide on just two. So if I go with the numbers, that is only like 9 or 10 fish. Don't I want like 20 or so fish in a 125 or would that be TOO overcrowded?

Erin
 
20 fish should be kool in a 125
 
My count was 16 (not including the catfish). Thats a good number seeing that the two haps will get bigger than 8 inches. Also, most of the catfish get pretty big too.
 
Oh my gosh! I thought I did my research. 8" is huge! I guess I could get all those pseudotropheus. I mis-read where it said I couldn't. So you are right, that is more fish than I was adding up. I am so excited!

Erin
 
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