My First African Cichlid Tank

[CluelessScot]

Hello all,

I have just set up my first malawi tank. I have used a fine crushed coral as substrate and im using lava rock. The filtration is a wet/dry trickle bar and the water flow aint much compared to an interal filter which im used to. The tanks around 40 gallons and i have a few questions...

1. I have a small power head from when the tank was used as a marine set-up. Should i use this to increase the water flow, also do i need alot of water movement?

2. Can anyone suggest some fish for me? Ill give a list of what i have seen/looked up and like...

my list:

Red Top Zebra Pseudotropheus Sandraracinos

Electric Yellow Labidochromis Caeruleus

Electric Blue Johannii Melanochromis johannii

Yellow Tail Acei Pseudotropheus Acei

MELANOCHROMIS AURATUS

Powder Blue Pseudotropheus socolofi


If you could suggest some combo of these plus others or any other comb that would be great!

Thanks all

Kev

P.S Pics on the way when i get home from work.

 

[nicelights]

Hello all,

I have just set up my first malawi tank. I have used a fine crushed coral as substrate and im using lava rock. The filtration is a wet/dry trickle bar and the water flow aint much compared to an interal filter which im used to. The tanks around 40 gallons and i have a few questions...

1. I have a small power head from when the tank was used as a marine set-up. Should i use this to increase the water flow, also do i need alot of water movement?

2. Can anyone suggest some fish for me? Ill give a list of what i have seen/looked up and like...

my list:

Red Top Zebra Pseudotropheus Sandraracinos

Electric Yellow Labidochromis Caeruleus

Electric Blue Johannii Melanochromis johannii

Yellow Tail Acei Pseudotropheus Acei

MELANOCHROMIS AURATUS

Powder Blue Pseudotropheus socolofi


If you could suggest some combo of these plus others or any other comb that would be great!

Thanks all

Kev

P.S Pics on the way when i get home from work.

Hi Kev,

From what I can make out, 40g is a bit small for most of the fish detailled in the post but a lot depends on the dimensions, however over filtering the tank will help a lot. As the fish are from a lake, I would day a powerhead isn't strictly necessary, but i have two chunky filters on my tank, and they seem quite happy with the added water flow...sometimes it almost seems they go surfing on the movement!

You definitely shouldn't mix the melanochromis as they are v. aggressive and it will all end in tears. The others will all even grow quite large, I guess you could go for a species tank, but the ideal for a 40g would be a shelldwellers tank in my opinion...

Cheers

Gordon

 

[CluelessScot]

Cheers, i will do a bit of reading into shell dwellers. What type of species tank would you suggest?

 

[nicelights]

Cheers, i will do a bit of reading into shell dwellers. What type of species tank would you suggest?

Hmmm...I would go by size of fish when fully grown, bearing in mind that some can get to 7 or 8 inches long...the Melanochromis will only get to 5inches, so if you're keen on them, then research ratios (1 male to many females etc)

I would say that you're doing the right thing by researching this before leaping, if I hadn't it would have been world war 3 in my malawi tank and the other users on this forum were very helpful in correcting my lunacy!

Cheers

G

 

[Aprilia997]

Feed them foods that are heavily algae based and they will stay much smaller as they do in the wild. If you were to dive into Lake Malawi you would not see any five inch mbunas, that is from a diet that they get in captivity with much more protein. The acei will reach five inches in any case and while they are not as aggressive as the other mbuna they can still mix it up.

 

[adambrum]

What are the dimensions of the tank if its 40g ie 4ft long you could go with 3 species of 4 max with 1m-3f ratio.

Red Top Zebra Pseudotropheus Sandraracinos, Should be ok

Electric Yellow Labidochromis Caeruleus, ok

Electric Blue Johannii Melanochromis johannii, keep away from these very aggressive

Yellow Tail Acei Pseudotropheus Acei, will get to big for a 40g

MELANOCHROMIS AURATUS, the devils own spawn highly aggressive !

Powder Blue Pseudotropheus socolofi, dont really know much about these i think they can be a bit nippy.

You need to find out whats avalable to you then we can sort out some stocking ideas.

Oh and if its a 40g short ie 3ft forget it and maybe look at the lake tanginika shell dwellers

 

[CluelessScot]

Thanks for the replys. The tanks 4ft long by 2 by 2. Now the lava rock is in there is only around 3 foot... I arranged the rock so that its stacked high at one side and there is open space at the other, Was that a bad idea? I think i may go with a trio of labs, a trio of Red Top Zebra and maybe a trio of Powder Blue. If i could have those three species i would be extrmely happy. What do you think?

Kev

 

[adambrum]

4ft x 2ft x2ft is a hell of a lot more than 40g, its about 100gallon !

That changes the numbers a lot, I would repost as im not 100% sure on stocking a tank with those dimension although its twice the size its still 4ft which with mbuna is the most important size, but at a guess you should be able 2to go to about 20 fish + bottom dwellers.

Its better to have rock all the way across so there will be more territories

 

[CluelessScot]

bah, i just assumed it was 40g since the last 4ft tank i had was 40g. I think i may add the power head in because im a little scared that crap will get stuck in the rocks and the water wont move so much there... ill try it out any ways. I have added 30kg of lava rock and i think ill stop there.

 

[nicelights]

D'oh!

I'd say crack on then...but avoid the melanochromis!

G