Malawi tank

hellstorm

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hello, i have just setup a small malawi community tank (30G long) currently it holds 1 electric yellow(2inches), 2 red/orange zebras(3inches, and 2 inches) and this big blue thing which i have no idea what its called. its my first african cichlid tank so can u guys please tell me some general information on keeping mbunas.
thanks
 
I just stripped my malawi tank down last night to start my tang. tank. You made a good choice trying out africans, you won't be disapointed. i've had them for like 2.5 years. Well IMO africans are some of the easiest fish to keep, just watch for agression. That's the only downside, but i've never had a prob. I keep my ph above 8.0 I have hard water, and i add the trace elements. That's about it. And i just bred my first african a few weeks ago(L.signatus). Hope you enjoy your tank. :D
 
Hey Hell,

Welcome to the world of Africans. Just a comment that these fish are quite territorial, make sure you put lots of rocks and caves in your tank so they can stake out their own territory.

Cheers,

F.
 
I keep Malawis also - they are very terratorial and every now and then I have to rearrange the rocks to stop any arguements, but they are fascinating fish to watch and mine are quite friendly. I live in a very hard water area and the only thing I add to the water is dechlorinator. The fish are fine and so far no problems. Be careful not to feed them too much protien (bloodworms and the like) as they have a tendency to get malawi bloat. Mine live mainly on dry food pellets - they don't like cichlid food - with lots of veggies and frozen food once a week. BTW finarfin, your avatar looks exactly like one of my fishies!!!
 
whats the best food to feed malawis? ive been feeding mine flakes and brineshrimp, what else should i feed?
 
it depends on whether u keep Mbuna's or what. Mbuna's love your veg and mine like the seaweed that i give them .
 
another question..... are mbunas scared of black?? cos i just got a new totally black background and they seem to be scared of it. like swimming rapidly across it and trying to fight it.
 
first of all you do have mbuna. the blue fish, does he look like the red zebras only blue? if so, he is a cobalt blue zebra. mbuna are very aggressive fish, the most aggressive of all being the auratus and chippokae. they like to have harems when mating. one way to keep down the aggression levels is to have three females for every male. the male will become extremely aggressive when mating and will kill any and all unwilling females. the best way to tell if you have the proper ratio of males and females is to vent the fish. one way to guesstimate is by the egg spotts. the egg spots or dummy spots are on the anal fin. one for males and several for females. the chippokae and kenyi are the easiest to sex. the female chippo is yellow and black striped vertically and the male is black and blue vertically striped. the female kenyi is black and blue horizontally striped and the male is a yellow gold color. the fry are born with the same color as the females and will change color when maturing. subdominant males will however retain the juvenile coloring to protect themselves from being killed by a dominant male. they are extremely territorial and the alpha male will rule the tank from a center point. they like to dig so undergravel filters are not a good choice for these types of fish. they are mouthbrooders, meaning the female will lay the eggs, the male will pass over and fertilize the eggs and then the female will scoop up the fertilized eggs into her mouth. she will hold the eggs until the fry are freeswimming. until the eggs hatch she will tumble the eggs around in her mouth. a female usually holds the eggs for three weeks. it is best to seperate the females when they are holding. she generally will not eat, although some females will eat during this time. she also is not able to protect herself so it is best to isolate her till she spits out the fry and let her recover for a few days returning her to the community tank.

mbuna are best fed spirulina, flake foods and blanched veggies. they can be fed protein but it does need to be kept to a minimum. at the most a biweekly, but preferably once a week basis. too much protein in an africans diet will cause a condition referred to as malawi bloat. basically it is the fish is constipated from high amounts of protein. bloat can cause fish loss though. cucumbers, zucchini, shelled peas, broccoli are good choices for food.

when i had my mbunas i fed them three times a day. flake in the am, veggies at noon rotating them so as not to give the same thing twice in a row and emerald green frozen food at night. i thawed the emerald green in tank water and then dumped it into the tank. they loved the stuff!

malawis will show their colors and fight with themselves for practice. it is not uncommon to see them open mouth trying to attack their reflections or other fish in a tank next to them. the black background probably allows them to get a better reflection of themselves. they will also show their colors when mating or trying to ward off aggressors. when breeding the male gets a breeding mask. a bold stripe of color will appear between and around the eyes like a raccoon.

the auratus and the chippokae are often mistaken for each other since they share simmilar female coloring. the auratus has a thin white stripe against the black stripe where the chippo is yellow and black only. the male auratus keeps the female coloring even when matured. mbuna are best kept with other mbuna as they are too aggressive for other malawis.

good luck with your new fish!

hth

maggie
 
thanks!
now the blue thing... very dull blue colour, very faint black/blue stripes 3/4 of the way down the body. looks similar to red zebra but have a slightly bigger lump on head(betta not be a hap moori). has lots of egg spots on anal fin. its bigger than the other fish by quite alot but never fights them. what is it?
 
can you post a pic of it? that would be the easiest way to get a definite id. could you go back to the lfs where you got it and find out what it is? could possibly be a female kenyi. if they said they were all mbuna.

a moori has slightly protruding lips. the face almost looks like it comes to a point. not a dull blue either.

does it look like this?

http://www.wetthumbaquatics.com/Fish%20Pic...romis_moori.htm

or this?

http://pasture.haaser.com:9480/gallery/kenyi/IMG_0275

you may have to copy and paste, sorry!

maggie
 
its dosnt look like any one of those. it dosnt have such a big lump. it kinda looks like this(colbat blue zebra) but it has blue black stripes down its body(like the hap moori shown there). and its a more darker and duller blue.
 
the kenyi is the one with the stripes. the moori is the solid blue one. some of the cobalt zebras do have very slight stripes. especially when showing their colors. if they are practicing with themselves, maybe he is showing his colors. think we need the master here. is there any way that you could post a pic?

could this be the rascal?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...d=21&pCatId=842

maggie
 
i dont think its a blue zebra, mine's fins are almost the same colour as its body and also the stripes are realy dull. mine looks the exact same color as the hap moori on the site i gave u but just dont have the big lump ( and his head looks like the one of a blue zebra) well kinda...
 
How about this one.....

Pseudotropheus socolofi...
socolo03.jpg


Another of the socolofi...
socolofi.jpg


The trade name for this fis powder blue cichlid.

CM
 

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