I have a new 55 gal and I want to do African cichlids. I've done a bunch of research and almost all the fish I have seen get huge, esp. Malawi's. I understand that Tanganyikas tend to be smaller, so I could have more of them, but I really like the Malawi's because they seem to be more colorful. Any suggestions?
A 55g is a good tank for either tangs or malawis. Not all malawi cichlids get huge. Actually, I wouldn't say any malawis get huge.....have you seen some of the south american cichlids? They get huge!
One benefit of malawi cichlids, is that you overcrowd them to control aggression. This would result in alot of color and alot of fish in that tank.
Are they are specific species you are interested in?
I am new to the whole Cichlid thing. To be honest I'm don't really know a lot of the species that are out there. Most of the research I have done has lead me to common names, not species names. One example I can think of is the Cobalt Blue Zebra. I really like the colorationa dn I understand that they won't get much bigger than 5" or so.
I do have some Blue Rams in my 20gal Tetra tank though. I know that they don't really belong there, but they behave well and look great, so I don't really care.
Ya, I have a 5" cobalt zebra in my 75g. They are pretty fish. You may want to do some google searching for "malawi cichlids" to see some different varieties. Also, take a look at some LFS and see what they have to offer. If you don't have many options for africans at your LFS, there is also online shopping for fish. Although the shipping can get quite costly.
Blue rams are a fine addition to a community tank. I had them in the past. They are a cichlid, but are not very aggressive at all and do well with other community fish.
The LFS thing is a bit of a problem here. There is one really good LFS around here, but unfortunately the only thing they don't have a lot of are cichlids (lots of basic community fish and marine). About the only other option I have locally is PetsMart. There is one near me that carries a lot of cichlids but their color looks terrible. I know that coloration has a lot to do with diet and stress so should I be really concerned by this? The CB Zebras looked grey. How do you feel about PetsMart fish? I know opinions vary on this one.
I like my stock list in my 55gallon, its good for now and I could even add a few fish If I wanted. Some may have to be taken out later like the venustus because he gets bigger than the others. I dont have any territory or aggression issues either which I think is due to the fact that I have a lot of hiding spots/rocks and that since there is a lot of action in the tank its hard for a fish to single out another one or hold any territory by themself.
If you decide to do zebras like the ones at petsmart im pretty sure its suggested that you have all zebras because of aggression issues. I got my fish from my LFS but I've heard a bunch of people are satisfied with aquabid.com and they have plenty of Africans.
a good place to look at profiles is www.malawimayhem.com
Some fish to concider, there is a search option if you don't know the scientific name:
Mbuna:
Yellow labs-labadocromis
Melenchromis Maingano
Rusty
Zebras
Haps:
Peackocks- alunacharis species
red empress (one of my favorites)
Generally you don't want to mix haps and mbuna because of activity and aggresion levels. Just start looking at different types of fish that you like, then ask questions about there compatibility. You should be able to fit like 10 to 12 malawi's in that 55.
most haps are too large for a 55 gallon and need lots of space i would stick to the mbunas and peacocks.i have 4 yellow labs,3 rusty cichlids,3 red peacocks, and 1 wal-mart peacock(probably a hibrid) in my 55 all these species are extremely peaceful by african standards,though the rustys are very hyper and sometimes spook the others.i have 0 experience with the aggressive mbunas so i cant recomend any paticular species.
