First Cichlid Build.

[MrGT500]

29 gallon tank, emporor 400 filter, decorated with stacked slate.

wanted to do cichlids. looking at least 1 electric yellow and 1 electic blue. 1 male 1 female (will the breed maybe) as well as a feather fin or possably a petricola.(pricey though)

other ideas? any suggestions?

 

[njstockley]

What are the dimensions of the tank? 29 gallon would be considered too small for a lot of the malawi species, and yellow labs can actually grow to a decent size under the right conditions. Something like Saulosi might be better suited to that sized tank, and the males and females are very different so would provide some variation.

2 fish would also not be recommended. Overstocking (and over filtering) seems to be the key to a successful malawi tank - it means aggression gets spread, and in theory no fish will be bullied to death.


I don't know enough about synos to say what would be best suited though.

Nick

 

[MrGT500]

the tank is 30 inches long 12 inches deep and 20 somthing high. it originally housed my 2 angels, 3 gouramis, a rainbow shark, an eclips cat and my 9 inch beast of a pleco. it worked out fine the pleco was just to big, all of my tanks are way over filterd so im not worried about that. i have found that people who say you need a huge tank have more time and money on thier hands than i do. but i have always maneged to do the "imppossable" with my tanks.


like i said any of the blue and yellow cichlids would be cool, also starting to thinbk about a butterfly fish

 

[minnnt]

30" is way too small for a full on malawi tank. You could probably get away with a saulosi or demasoni tank, but that may still be on the little side. You should be considering stocking a lot more fish. And the featherfins will also outgrow the tank. Petricola or multipunctatus would be the better option.

I would go with 12 saulosi if it was me and you definately wanted malawi's. Yellow labs are big chunky fish when adults, as are the socolofi.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

I would definitely abandon the idea of a Malawi setup in a 29g, just on its size, before we even consider the relatively weak filtration you have on it and the need to overstock.

You could do a nice mini Tanganyikan setup, where it is considered best to understock, which will leave plenty of spare capacity for fry raising and watching the interaction between each species. For example...
Pair of "Sumbu Dwarf" (with an area with plenty of shells)
Pair of Julidochromis dickfeldi (with an area with rocks containing hidey holes)
Pair of Neolamprologus caudopunctatus (as above, but they should roam to some extent)

You could perhaps "risk" a relatively small Phyllonemus or Lophiobagrus catfish pair, but they will try to treat the above's fry as "live lunch." I'm not sure you would have the space to give a social 5+ group of Synodontis lucipinnis; petricola; multipunctata etc.