Malawi Community Additions

[chrisso]

Hi everyone,
I currently have a 4 foot tank that im slowly turning into a african community setup.
It is currently home too.

4 Maingano's
2 Electric yellow's (yellow labs)
4 Red zebra's ( 2 orange 1 albino 1 brown)
2 Blue dolphin's

All of these guys are around the same age/size and none being bigger than 6 CM.

Im looking at adding a few more to my tank but i do not want to overcrowed it, There is quite a bit of rock with plenty of caves and i no there is definatly room for a few more.

If i could obtain some advice on what species i could add with these fishes and how many would be great.

I dont have coral gravel only normal black gravel but my water is naturaly alkaline and hard is stable on 7.8 so that should be fine for them right?.
And is driftwood ok for these fishes?

Thanks guys

 

[markandhisfish]

your ph is fine for malawis dont know what maionganos are so i cant comment there but you should increase the number of yellow labs for starters . they really should be in a bigger group , say 6 .

the blue moori are quite mellow cichlids so you should try and avoid overly agressive species as tankmates . some peacocks could work well

 

[Squidward]

With Mbuna you actually need to overcrowd them. That will spread the aggression.

The dolphins will get big, and are relatively placid. If it was me, I would rehome them. They aren't sutiable for your setup.

I would also avoid peacocks and Haps. Although they can be mixed with Mbuna, your tank is relatively small, so it could be asking for trouble.

Cynotilipa afra is nice as is Iodotropheus sprengerae (Rusty)
There are plenty of species of Pseudotropheus, Labidotropheus and Melanochromis species. Does your lfs have a decent selection? Go and have a look and see what you like.
Try not to mix similar species as this will cause a lot of addtional aggression.
And also add them in groups of 6+ to avoid 1 new fish being picked on.

 

[markandhisfish]

ime peacocks are pretty easy going ( relatively speaking) and will be fine in 4 foot tank . if the OP is dead set on keeping the moori then these would be a much more suitable route than more mbuna

 

[chrisso]

Which of my fishes are from lake mbuna? when purchasing i was lead to belive they were all from malawi. is it the blue dolphins? i could rehome these fish to a good friends tank. and get more yellow labs.

Also the 2 yellow labs i currently have are acting a little funny.

I feed my fish NLS and the yellow labs seam to just take it in and spit it out. my zebra's have nearly doubled in size and the yellow labs have not grown at all really. i can tell i have 1 male and 1 female. they also just prefer to sit in thier caves rather than being active like yellow labs normally are? any info on this?.

Thankyou for your replys

 

[markandhisfish]

all the fish are indeed from lake malawi , mbuna isnt a lake its a type of malawi cichlid . mbuna is the name given to a group of rock dwelling cichlids . the labs may be acting funny due to the numbers , 2 isnt ideal . perhaps rehome the moori and the mainganos and add 4 more yellow labs . then 5 or so of a few other species like cynotilapia afra ( loads of regional variants of this fish , cobue and jalo reef are 2 nice ones ) pseudotropheus socolofi etc . this would make a nice display imo