Show me your Mbuna and/or Peacock tanks

[Wills]

Hi I really want to know who here keeps Rift Lake cichlids I can think of a few but there must be more Don't be shy show us your set up and what you are keeping here!

Wills

 

[GaryE]

I could show you those tanks, but I have other fish in them now.

 

[Wills]

I could show you those tanks, but I have other fish in them now.

It looks like that might be the best option...

 

[GaryE]

I've been enjoying your journey vicariously though. First off there are many more species and hybrids available than when I kept Malawis. I've looked at keeping them again a few times over the years, but I'm currently getting excited about maybe getting my hands on a new geographic group of Cichlids I haven't encountered before. Since I moved to a super soft water zone, I won't go for mbuna again. If I wanted something the size of peacocks, I'd go for Geophagus or Tylochromis.
The "Upper west side" of my city has rock hard, mineral rich water, and the rest of the city has rainforest tap. So I know a few local mbuna people up the hill.

When I have a chunk of time I'm going to take these lists you've put up and go through google images, species by species, morph by morph.

One fish I have always wanted to keep, since I first saw a photo, is a Tanganyikan. Eretmodus cyanostictus. They're adapted to the rough water at the edge of the lake.

 

[Wills]

I've been enjoying your journey vicariously though. First off there are many more species and hybrids available than when I kept Malawis. I've looked at keeping them again a few times over the years, but I'm currently getting excited about maybe getting my hands on a new geographic group of Cichlids I haven't encountered before. Since I moved to a super soft water zone, I won't go for mbuna again. If I wanted something the size of peacocks, I'd go for Geophagus or Tylochromis.
The "Upper west side" of my city has rock hard, mineral rich water, and the rest of the city has rainforest tap. So I know a few local mbuna people up the hill.

When I have a chunk of time I'm going to take these lists you've put up and go through google images, species by species, morph by morph.

One fish I have always wanted to keep, since I first saw a photo, is a Tanganyikan. Eretmodus cyanostictus. They're adapted to the rough water at the edge of the lake.

Ah thats good to know You're really only seeing me scrape the surface of what I've pulled together so far - I can share more if you want. I've bookmarked loads of videos, articles, pictures - been using my design skills to make 'moodboards' of combinations haha started trying to learn what all the different locations mean as I'm starting to see similarities between species labeled as locations so wondering at the moment if a certain location will dictate that a strain is more blue or orange etc or if a lot of red species come from a certain area.

 

[Wills]

And a big yes to the Goby Cichlids! One you see combined with Tropheus and Petrochromis! But all a bit rich for me... Tanganyikans are certainly interesting though.... have you seen the Aquarium Co-Op tour of the farm in Israel? Amazing amazing stuff!

 

[GaryE]

I know from working with importing world that when Malawis were super hot, you could have a bay with villages a, b, c ringing it. So you'd get lists with "unbelievable new fish, Pseudotropheus A!!!". The the next list, B, then C.... I hope the Malawi people have sorted that out. The Apistogramma sellers in SA used to do something similar.
With my beloved killies, we also have locations, but they were pinned to the fish by serious hobbyists or researcher, and weren't marketing tricks.

This is the last Rift Lake fish I kept, marunguensis. The social structure was a spectacle - each successive brood took over aspects of care of the next. I had excavators, nest cleaners, periphery guards - it was a fish village adapted to a conflict zone. The problem was

how many I ended up with, since

they were so efficient.

The fin tips that look ivory were actually blue.