White Lips Has A Small Eye

[Ellieabbott4]

I'm new to keeping malawi cichlids and I picked up four white lips. They are all healthy apart from one which has a small eye, it's left one is fine but the right one is tiny. It's seems happy enough and swims around with the others
This is his right eye

 

[Ryan10]

I had a piranha with something similar.  He did just fine.   What kind of Malawi tank are you setting up?  4 of one species in a tank can lead to a lot of trouble.

 

[KirkyArcher]

Could it not be a parasite growing on the eye? From the photo and with my eyesight it looks like it could possibly be Dermosporidia!

but even with a small eye or even no eye at all he'll still do OK!

 

[Ellieabbott4]

I had a piranha with something similar.  He did just fine.   What kind of Malawi tank are you setting up?  4 of one species in a tank can lead to a lot of trouble.

Well I'm hoping to set up a peaceful tank, the bloke I picked these up from said I could have at least 8 groups of 3 or 4 different tyes of malawi. My tank is 260l. I'm still learning about all of this and I'm realising how much there is to learn. Is it best to keep just one fish of each species?

This is my list of malawi's that I like:

Pseudotropheus saluosi

Pseudotropheus elongatus mpanga

pseudotropheus flavus

pseudotropheus polit

Labidochromis caeruleus (Electric Yellow Lab)

White lips Scientific Name: Placidochromis phenochilus


Would it be possible to mix all of these types together? If so, what ratio of males to females would be a good mix. I'm not particularly interested in breeding them yet until I understand more about the fish but not sure if I could have all males as they are the most colourful?

 

[Ryan10]

Yes there is a lot to learn.  I am still learning myself.  It looks like you have some mbuna cichlids.  These guys can be nasty.  I went the route of mixing peacocks and haps.  Mine are all male and I have one of each species.  Another thing I learned, is to overstock them to deal with aggression.   The peacocks are more peaceful than the mbuna.  I started a thread called "my fish journal" in the picture section if you want to check it out.  I am also able to add some other species that I couldn't with mbuna.   I wish I knew more about mbuna cichlids to help more.