Convince Me Not To Go Down The Malawi Route..

[Always Learning]

Right, I'm collecting a free 6ft'er tonight and was just going to go with a mbuna setup. I've got most of the gear, a start for the stock in my other tank and it was just me on auto pilot thinking right, malawi..

Now, I know there's other options, but I just can't put together a decent new world setup as I have no experience with them. I know about them, but the only place I see them is at work. I'm after something with character, interactive, nice colouring and a nice mixture of species in the tank. Not too bothered about breeding, but always nice to see it going on in my tank.

The dimensions are only 72" x 18" x 18", so it's not overly deep or tall, which I think will limit my stock somewhat. What would you do, or what have you got that works and fits in with the description I put? Experiences and pics would be appreciated, as I think it would be a nice change, but not sure if it's something I could stick with longterm.

Thanks

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Its your tank, ultimately you need to happy with your fish stocking plans!

You could do a great African (not Malawi or Tanganyika) or Indian Biotope with a tank that size, or how about a mixture of fish from fast flowing rivers including Hillstream Loaches (so will need excellent flow and oxygen content)?

 

[Always Learning]

Yeah I know, I say the same thing to others, yet here I am asking

I collected the tank though and have run into problems. It was always going to be a tight squeeze but moving things around, in theory everything should have fit easily. Not so... The lovely uneven walls of my ancient house has meant measuring, doesn't equal real world. #39####, so I now have a 6ft tank and stand stood in front of my fireplace, taking up all my room. Good times.

Reckon I'm just going to get rid of this and go with a 4ft until I can move house.. so nevermind, I'll stick with my current stock and look more into this between then and now.

 

[Glenbo1981]

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[snowflake311]

Personaly I find the malawi fish to be colorful but ugly in the face if you know what i mean. I only have 2 african cichlids a Blockhead(who is awesome) and Dwarf butterfly. Anyways the NW fish have lots of personality and you can't just throw any fish in the tank and hope it works out. They let you know who the tank mates will be. I find the NW come in so many differant shapes and sizes with so many differant temperments. The CA cichlid tend to be more aggressive then the SA fish of the amazon basin who tend to be a bit more peaceful as far a cichlids go.

What it comes down to is what you like what do you want in a fish? Do you want lots of fun colorful fish. Or do you want some big fish that are more like pets. OR do you want a well planted community tank with some cute dwarf cichlids.

Do your reseach ask people about the fish you like.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Reckon I'm just going to get rid of this and go with a 4ft until I can move house..

So when can you drop the 6ft tank round my place?

 

[Always Learning]

I'll just pop round now. Leeds to Southampton.. won't take long

 

[walkers101]

Leeds to Leicester is closer

 

[markandhisfish]

you should give the tank to me so i can divide it and get 2 breeding pairs of discus

 

[Piltdownpaul]

I'll have the 2ft you dont need!!!

 

[Jenni84]

Leeds to Manchester is even closer

 

[Big_eyes]

Leeds to Kendal may not quite be as close as manchester but at least you'll arrive in a beautiful place!

 

[Always Learning]

Vultures, the lot of you!

Tried moving everything in the front room around, but still, it's not going to happen

Soo.. the new plan could involve two 4ft'ers instead. I'd go Malawi in one, so I can keep some of my current stock, then something different in the other. Already had a few of the dwarf cichlids and still got some Apistos in my other tank, so not really wanting to head in that direction.

Ideally, I'd be looking for something that would be ok in a planted setup. Doesn't get too large that I'd have to consider upgrading again within the year (It'll happen anyway... ), Wouldn't eat a nice shoal of cardinals or Rummynose, or maybe even some type of barb instead. Character and a bit of spunk about them. Aggression isn't too much of a problem, providing it's not some killer species that I can't mix anything with. So, there you go.. I can't think of much other than Firemouths, Keyholes etc and maybe Blue Acara, though the first two seem to be pretty shy and not sure how they are with plants. Could go with Discus, but although they're beautiful to look at, I feel they lack much else.

Open to ideas anyway and I'll leave you squabbling over the tank

 

[snowflake311]

Vultures, the lot of you!

Tried moving everything in the front room around, but still, it's not going to happen

Soo.. the new plan could involve two 4ft'ers instead. I'd go Malawi in one, so I can keep some of my current stock, then something different in the other. Already had a few of the dwarf cichlids and still got some Apistos in my other tank, so not really wanting to head in that direction.

Ideally, I'd be looking for something that would be ok in a planted setup. Doesn't get too large that I'd have to consider upgrading again within the year (It'll happen anyway... ), Wouldn't eat a nice shoal of cardinals or Rummynose, or maybe even some type of barb instead. Character and a bit of spunk about them. Aggression isn't too much of a problem, providing it's not some killer species that I can't mix anything with. So, there you go.. I can't think of much other than Firemouths, Keyholes etc and maybe Blue Acara, though the first two seem to be pretty shy and not sure how they are with plants. Could go with Discus, but although they're beautiful to look at, I feel they lack much else.

Open to ideas anyway and I'll leave you squabbling over the tank

Ok but how big is the 4 foot tank? it could be 40 gal - 90 gal.

You could go with Keyhole cichlids, Smiling acara, Angles, and discus could work very well. Smaller Geos could be good but they dig. Festivum are great they don't dig but they snack on plants some times. Stay away from the blue acara they eat small fish. Of yeah Rams would be great.