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Hi welcome to the forum :) Have you added anything to the aquarium in the last few weeks/months? If so perhaps it is a disease route to check. If not and it sounds like its a mature tank so perhaps not, I'd check your electrics, faulty heaters, Co2 solenoid letting too much through. What...

No in all honesty its really hard to find good advice on Malawi for some reason, handful of people on YouTube, Cichlid Forum has some really good articles and profiles - someone there told me the 4 slots advice and avoid any similarities :) Going to take a bit of time to get your head fully...

I hadn't thought of how Acei Ngara and White Labs would look but yeah you are right that would be really cool! I think your 4 groups that you've mentioned would work really nicely I do like Mbuna tanks that manage to get a Lab and an Acei species in there as you should get some different...

The only issue with Trewavasea is the bright blue body might cause problems with the Callainos - its not a guaranteed problem but there could be visually more different species to go for? You can get a Labeotropheus that is the otherway round with red bodies and blue/white fins, I can't remember...

No problem :) when it comes to mixing the groups its not an exact science as the groupings are a bit confusing but the more you can diversify the look of each species (stripes, colours, headshapes) it helps dilute aggression in a tank. The names are constantly being updated and refined so worth...

Hi this sounds interesting! I'm working on an Mbuna tank at the moment too :) In the pic I think you are right overall but to give you up to date scientific names as Malawi are a bit hard to research as the names change so much. The striped ones are Chindongo Demasoni - not necessarily Pombo...

Did the food have a sachet of some kind of dehydrator in? Some foods do to keep it dry in the pack, I wonder if this could have split or if the bag fell in the tank and the fish somehow got in? In the bags they are meant to be harmless but if ingested toxic. Wills

If you can harden your water Lake Tanganyika would give you a couple of interesting options - mainly in the shell dweller groups but an interesting choice. I have a group of Red Eye Red Tail Puffers in a similar sized tank and that works really nicely :) quite tricky to keep as you have to feed...

Holy moly $115!!! I've not heard of that store so can't really comment but if I was in the US I'd be looking at Tangled Up In Cichlids and Cichlids of the Americas, legendary cichlid sources - in the UK big groups of us used to club together to bring £1000 shipments over to people who had fish...

In a 60 gallon you'd be best with Rotkiels or Liberifer - both species are smaller than the regular Efasciatus species like the Greens and Golds. How you do it is an interesting proposition... if it were me I'd go with a single specimen of Severum and a group of something like Cupid Cichlids...

I’d keep fertilising and co2 the same lights on for 6-8 hours at the start

Thats interesting they were so small - I've had a very similar situation in the past too. I think these are a fish well worth sticking with, coming from Lake Inle they live in naturally hard, alkaline water so should do well in most of the UK with our chalk bed streams and limestone bedrocks...

What about pencil fish for the upper third? Some stunning coloured species around could be that niche you are wanting to tackle?

Sawbwa resplendens is a rasbora from Myanmar in lake inle rummy nose tetras are from South America two different species with similar markings though. In terms of mixing the genders they are not a really aggressive fish where gender ratios are demanded by the fish but in a big enough group it...

Take the top off your canister and if you can drop an air stone into the bottom so it agitates through the media. Unavoidable sometimes but stressful situation to be in!

Just to add I’d give it a bit of time before you make a decision second hand aquarium stuff is not that valuable and if you sell up and regret it you could be out of pocket a bit getting back to where you are now. I’ve had big tank crashes and disease outbreaks and I always come back. Might be...

Sounds like a really tough situation but it can happen to fish anywhere including in the wild from droughts or pollution etc. Cloudy water could be a sign of a bacterial bloom which can come from a filter bacteria die off. Do you happen to live somewhere rural? Sometimes I’ve heard of...

I think you need some hardscape in there :) A big V shaped piece of wood (or combination of smaller pieces) would look great and it would only really mean clearing/moving the central clump of crypts I think the rest of the plants would regrow and adapt around it and you're not risking too much...

Yes! I've been getting really tempted by Pacman Frogs but I've not looked too much into them but they are very cool. Will be watching to see what people suggest :)

I do right now for sure but I'm ok with it :) I'm sat in my office with 4 tanks right now I have one downstairs and one in my dining room - taking it slow to get everything right but so far so good!

Looks great! Going to grow in really nice as well. With that much soil I'd do water changes in the George Farmer/Tropica method - 1 per day for the first week, 1 every other day for week 2, every 3 days for week 3, 2 a week for week four and then into your weekly changes ahead of adding fish...

I'm pretty sure its not Myco (but thanks for switching that anxiety switch in my brain haha)... I think it would have taken some fish by now but not lost anything and the rosy loaches have been in for I'd guess 2-3 months? I'm going to look at the esha products Essjay shared and do it in that...

Which eSHa products do you think would be the best alternative?

The Rice Fish were from a really reputable retailer - it is inevitable that in the trade that some fish come through ill but this was a bit of an outlier for me from this store usually really solid. Thanks Colin :) I thought you might have thought this was about my MTS! I think that the API...

I am going to increase feeding to see if that helps with all the shrimp in there a lot of mouths! Just a bit scarred after the rice fish I think as not had an issue like that for years

Quite a while ago I brought home some very skinny rice fish to go in my 30 litre tank - all but 2 of the 12 died, some very quickly others over time. They seemed to gradually get thinner and thinner until they were flat and then die. They all seemed to be eating but not gaining weight. In the...

Why does this thread have so many members with 1 post - meaning they joined a fish forum to talk about Covid and their opinions about various approaches to it...

I thought so love how bright green it is towards the back. I feel like I've said it before but have you thought about adding some stones in between the plants and the sand? If you could get a couple of sizes in there it might look more natural rather than the initial step up to the plants?

Current plans are just plants, definitely no shrimp - I'd consider some kind of shrimp or maybe Thai Micro Crabs but by no mean a big deal if not. I just wanted it set up nice and simple :) I'm hoping the plants go nuts and just fill the tank out, the hairgrass should get really dense :) I did...

Its looking great! Whats the big green crypt at the back left.

Stunning! How big do they grow?

It is certainly a beauty! I've seen these in a couple of shops and definitely big money! They are meant to be more chilled than most other big freshwater puffers right? How have you found them.

Planted and filled up my UNS 16T tonight it is 15 x 15 x 25cm which comes out as 5 litres. I'm never putting livestock in here just the plants, its a filterless, heaterless tank and the plants I have in here are Eleocharis Parvula, Myriophyllum Guyana and Anubias Mini Coin, I'm not too sure how...

Ah cool so I would call 9 pretty neutral for hardness, not going to cause any problems for your cichlids and also probably hard enough for your rainbows. I love a Featherfin, I had one years ago when I was a teenager and still think about them - I always see them in my local stores being...

I was thinking it would be pleco heaven at the moment. It could look great with loads of small fish swimming through the big structure with loads of moss in there but not me right now…

I’m hoping you have pretty neutral water with that mix of fish - I’d go for more rainbows though as a start I’d avoid gourami with your cichlids as it doesn’t often work well long term. What type of syno do you have? Some species do well in groups some don’t so that could be an other option...

I’ve had quite a bit off there and it’s been good so far you just have to keep an eye out to see what comes up. Sometimes you get some real bargains and really good quality stuff other times it’s just not what you need… Not super helpful I know but what I’m saying is don’t be scared of it haha

So the room is moving on! Kitchen built, water and electrics sorted next week. In the meantime I’ve had to store most of my hard scape in the tank and had to get a pic! I don’t hate it but it is too much haha