How will I ever know if my fish are dead?

[GaryE]

You design the rockwork so you can see into every cave. This reduces the danger of dead fish being unnoticed, and also, if done right, eliminates dead spots in the caves. 47 Malawis in a 190ltr is taking the agression reduction strategy to an extreme. I might have gone as high as 30 in a tank that size during the years I kept Cichlids from that group. Maybe, if I had a lot of young growing out in a tank with their parents.
You have to balance water quality with aggression with those fish. They are tough creatures, but.
The debate about how quickly they rot versus being eaten isn't one we should have. Ammonia spikes in hard water are not pretty. Really, the tank design has to make that impossible. A fish may die when you're out of town, but if it dies in the tank, you have to be able to see it.

 

[AmyKieran]

You design the rockwork so you can see into every cave. This reduces the danger of dead fish being unnoticed, and also, if done right, eliminates dead spots in the caves. 47 Malawis in a 190ltr is taking the agression reduction strategy to an extreme. I might have gone as high as 30 in a tank that size during the years I kept Cichlids from that group. Maybe, if I had a lot of young growing out in a tank with their parents.
You have to balance water quality with aggression with those fish. They are tough creatures, but.
The debate about how quickly they rot versus being eaten isn't one we should have. Ammonia spikes in hard water are not pretty. Really, the tank design has to make that impossible. A fish may die when you're out of town, but if it dies in the tank, you have to be able to see it.

I have placed the rocks in a way that there as as little blind spots as possible. It’s difficult really with the number of gush because I’ve been told different numbers from a variety of aquatics experts. I’ve been told as long as the filtration is good, 50 is the ideal number. What I’ve found with keeping Malawi and African cichlid is, you can ask 50 people and get 50 different answers. But in terms of the dead fish scenario, I’ve tried everything I can to basically see as much as I can