Lake Malawi 58G

[sproett]

My husband and I are moving out of the Houston area and are putting our condo up for sale.  We're taking down our aquariums to make the place look bigger but we're leaving one 10G up because I don't want to lose all my plants and we've decided to make our 58G tall tank into a Lake Malawi tank.  We figure we've been wanting one for awhile and all their bright colors will make potential buyers remember our condo.  We're putting all our other tanks in storage-I sure will miss them!

We want to overstock the tank and have lots of movement.  Once we sell the condo I can weed out some of the fish and just take our favorites.  I know I want some yellow labs and one or more of those bright blue fish that Fish Gallery always puts in their display tanks.  Does anyone know what those are called?  I'm also interested in the black one with the white stripe right behind it's head-some kind of tropheus I think.  It's the one that is black with white speckles as a baby.  Can these go together?

Does anyone know of a good reference to which fish can be housed together?  I don't want any hybrids so I need to know which fish not to mix.  Also, I'd like to put a few male peacocks in there.  Are they too docile to mix with the mbunas?  I like the auratus, johanni, zebras, but I'd rather have the others I've mentioned if the mbunas are too aggressive.  

Finally, I have a pictus cat that is about 4 inches long, can he live with the cichlids?  I also have a 1 1/2 inch rubber pleco, can he survive with them?  Are there any non-cichlids that I can put in with them (like tiger barbs, etc) that would add interest to the tank or should I just stick with these guys?  

All comments and suggestions are welcome!

[Zulaab]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

Sorry to see you leave - you should see if you could take your tanks with you :)  you know you will be missing them soon enough :)

Malawi's - Here is the little bit I know..  Mbuna are the most aggressive compared to the haps and Peacocks.
I am going to be blending a little myself in my 75 I am hoping to setup at the end of the month.
I would only take one type of peacocks to avoid hybrids.
With what you are saying here is what I would recommend.

1.  Mbuna - Yellow Labs and Hongi (the least aggressive I think)  This is to get you yellow and Purple.
2.  Haps - Electric Blue Ahli Cichlid - this will give you some blue in the tank, Giraffe Cichlid - Yellow body with a pattern in it and Blue face on the male
3.  Peacock - Red Empress - to give you some red in the tank, Red Body, blue face again.

You can vary with milage, but in honesty I would most likely stay away from Pseudotropheus family of mbuna's as I find them the most aggressive out there.  There are exceptions ofcource and I am sure people will jump and correct me.

[armthehomeless]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

Lets see:

-The bright blue fish is a Electric Blue Ahli (Sciaenochromis ahli). Onlythe males are bright blue. The females are silver.
-The tropheus that you are talking about is a duboisi. It would not be best to mix tropheus (a tanganyikan cichlid)with malawi cichlids because they have very different diets.
-Yeah... you can put some non-cichlids in with cichlids. It all depends on what you want to do. It is harder if you go with mbuna though. They can be quite aggressive. Yellow labs and peacocks are less aggressive than mbuna. I had an M. auratus several years back that killed at least a half dowzen fish before I could figure out what was happening. Your pictus cat and Rubberlip should be fine. I have a rubberlip in with 60+ Yellow labs currently. His fins get nipped occasionally, but nobody has done anything serious to him.

If you are interested in yellow labs and electic blues, PM me. I've got tons of both of them!

Hope this helps

[armthehomeless]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

The problem is alot of haps will outgrow a 58g tall....

To avoid hybrids: You'll only want one type of peacock as Zulaab mentioned. If you get all males, they wont crossbreed though.  :wink:  A good rule of thumbin general is to avoid fish from the same genus and fish that look alot alike.

[sproett]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

Well, we're taking our tanks but our situation is a bit weird so I'm not sure where we'll be just yet.  My husband is graduating medical school in May and has been interviewing for residency slots for the past few months.  He has to do an intern year and then 4 years of residency and they might not be in the same place.  We find out out in March where we are moving and we are hoping for Fort Worth for the intern year and then to come back to Houston for the residency.  If we're only going to be gone a year I think we'll keep the majority of our tanks in storage just to make things easier.  To make things even more complicated we may be living with family members or renting an apartment for a few months before the move.  

After hearing what you two have said I need to decide if we should go with a more aggressive set-up or to skip the mbunas.  I'll have to talk to my husband and see what he thinks.  I know he loves yellow labs and peacocks so that seems like the route we'll take.  I would love to have different types of peacocks so I'll have to stick with males to avoid breeding.  I'm not sure what a hongi looks like but I'll google them in a bit to see what you're talking about Zulaab.  That's too bad I can't have the duboisi, they are so beautiful.  Now I know what I'll do with my 55G when we get settled in our new place!  

You both have given me a lot of great info to get started on my selection.  I'm excited to get this project going but I have to wait for the weekend to start figuring out how to lay out the rocks in the tank.  My husband is out of town all week on more interviews and with the tank being so tall and the rocks being heavy it's not something I can do by myself.  Do these fish burrow a lot?  I'm using sand as the substrate but I do have some gravel I could use if that would be better.  I really am aiming for a tank that'll look impressive.

[sproett]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

After talking with my husband we've decided to go with a mbuna set-up.  I'm looking at the fish profiles on cichlid-forum to get an idea of what I want.  

Would it be better to get 3 or 4 of each type and have lots of different species or to have 6 or 8 of each type?

[Zulaab]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

With Mbuna's you are going to want to "overcrowd" them a little... ie a few more mbuna will actually do your tank better as aggression will be less on each individual fish.   You will need to setup a rocky terrain in the tank.  Plants.. dont worry about them, its just food to them.  
I would most likely go with about 6-8 yellow Labs (ask armthehomeless for some)..  Goto Mike's Tropical Fish and grab yourself 10-12 mbuna from his assorted small and medium cichlid stock as they will be inexpensive, as they grow they will show colors and then I would fill in additional females if you want to do some breeding later.    Get him to grab stuff that are of the same line as you said you dont like Hybrids to much (at least when it came to Peacocks)...

[sproett]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

I haven't been to Mike's Tropical Fish yet, I guess it's about time I traveled that way.  I need to look on the map to see what other lfs are out that way so we can make a day of it.  

When I had peacocks I tried for an all male tank but ended up with one female...I think you can guess how that ended.  And getting fish out of tanks full of rocks isn't that easy, especially when the males' color fades when you stick the net in the tank.  I ended up with fry that grew and bred with who knows.  It was fun seeing all the babies but eventually they all started looking alike.  I did have a stunning yellow one (lemon, I think) and a very vivid blue and red one.

[Hanson77]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

The only issue with buying small Mbunas, especially from the "Assorted Cichlids" tanks is that you really don't know what you are getting.  Some of them change colors as they age and then there is the issue of telling males and females.  If you just buy groups of assorted Mbunas, you are without a doubt going to get hybrids...it's just the nature of the beast.  I had one that would breed with anything in the tank.  It made for interesting babies but you just never know what you end up with.  It's better if you buy decent sized groups of totally different colored mbunas if you are going to do it.  Like for instance Demasoni, Yellow Labs and then something different from these two.  This would give you a good variation of color and also keep your hybrid issue under control.  

As always...my two pennies worth.

[sproett]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

I've come up with a list of ones I'd like to have so I have an easier time at the lfs.  I'm toying with making a DYI background so this project may take longer than I anticipated.

[armthehomeless]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

DIY backgrounds can be fun! They never have turned out too well for me, but I hope you have better luck. I agree with what Hanson77 said. You'll inevitably get some sort of hybrid if you get a fish from a "mixed cichlid" tank. I would try to get more of each fish and fewer types.

[sproett]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

I'm toying with a few different ideas for the background but my husband thinks we should tackle this after the move.  I think if I give him a few months of thinking about this he'll come up with a better plan than I ever could.  So the waiting begins...  

I tried stacking the rocks in the tank last night but I'm not satisfied.  I don't see this tank looking the way I'd like unless I buy some new rocks.  I certainly don't want to move more rocks so I may just have to deal with what I have for the time being.  

I'm so darn frustrated with the whole tank.  I don't even want to post a picture of what I've done so far...it's that bad!  I was trying to stack the rocks up as high as possible but without using silicone I don't see how it's possible.  I ended up with a short stack across the tank, almost half way up and covering most of the bottom from back to front.  The entire top half is open.  I can't see a way to change this.  I thought about adding tall plants but I think it'll detract from the rocky look I'm going for.  


Will I end up with 1/2 my tank unused?  If so, should I reconsider mbunas (suggestions if so)?  
Or, can you suggest fish that will occupy the top half (in addition to the mbunas at the bottom)?  Maybe rainbowfish?  Or another cichlid that prefers open water?

I know I want AC but they don't have to be Malawi.  All I want is lots of color and lots of action.  

Here's a list of the fish I want (I don't plan to buy all of them, just gives you an idea of what I'm going for)
l. trawavasae
m. johnanni
m. estherae
yellow lab
p. socolofi (albino)
p. saulosi
p. acei
l. sprengerae
c. afra  

Sorry for the long post, just trying to work this all out in my head.  If I can get this figured out we're going Friday to get our first batch of fish.

[Zulaab]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

If I may make a suggestion.  take a look at Rate my Tank and look at some of their 105 freshwater tanks.. they may give you some good ideas on how to stack your rock up :)
If I didnt have holey rock I would most likely go for a more slate rock stack setup

[sproett]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

Well, after looking at the first three pages of that website I feel better about my rock situation.  I saw lots of piles of rocks and with a bit of tweaking it could look better.  I have a mix of holey rock, lava rock, landscaping rock, petrified wood, and random rocks I've found throughout the years.  A lot of those tanks had fake plants in with the rocks, I may stick some in to see what I think (can't hurt!).  The main problem I had was my husband wasn't thinking about how the rocks looked, just how secure they were while I have the opposite problem.  Normally I am the one that decorates the tanks but I have developed a nerve problem in my right hand that makes gripping rocks difficult so he had to do all the placing while I stood there watching.  Our problem is the tank is 24" tall and after about 12" it's hard to form stable piles (with the rocks I have anyhow).    Thanks for the website Zulaab, I'm going to look through them all and hopefully get inspired.

[Zulaab]

Re: Lake Malawi 58G

I hope it helps...  As I said I would use slate/plates and put them so they make openings and holes all over the place.  It could go almost all the way to the top if nessesary