Need Instant Help With Malawi Cichlid!

[Ch4rlie]

Hmm, try using photobucket or similar to upload photos.
 
Really is difficult to identify what fish you have just by description alone. There are a number of people on this forum who know a lot about cichlids and be able to advise accordingly to the species you have. 

 

[BethsMalawiCichlids]

Will try again tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your help at such a silly time at night

 

[Ch4rlie]

No such thing as a silly time on this forum as people here are from all over the world (a lot from the USA and the time in New York now is 6.00 pm !!

) so timelines differs, so there is nearly always someone awake and online on this site.
 
For me its kinda addictive so am online quite a lot nearly every day and learning all the time! 

 
Get these pictures uploaded as soon as you can, that way, your cichlids are identified sooner and someone on this forum will advise the best way to go to resolve your dilemma and help those cichlids!

 

[Agent14]

I'm am assuming these are very small ..perhaps almost fry sized?
How big are they? At small sizes they are hard to sex ...at least many of them are. Some types colors will be brighter or different on males. First off this is very small of a tank for these guys. You need a 4foot tank or so depending on what you have and how many you intend to keep. I suspect you have gotten a mix of Haps and Mbunas from your body shape description..which is not easy for beginners to keep together. Aggression differences and diets are very different. You should try getting photos up when you get the time to.Even a proper environment you will see these turf battles and bite marks. The best advice other then a much larger tank is to get lots of rocks. They need areas to "own" and they will fight for them(even to death). However you also need to find out if likely males and/or females so you know if this will work (in a larger tank) and also if in fact you have a mix of haps and Mbunas. As a newbie to cichlids I would choose one or the other and stick to it so you don't have to target feed and such. 

 

[BethsMalawiCichlids]

The fish I think i have...

http/www.tropicalfishandaquariums.com/AfricanCichlids/Auratus.asp

http/www.cichlids.com/pictures/pic/What_am_I_What_sex.html - doesn't have a yellow dorsal fin though

https/www.google.co.uk/search?q=iceblue+zebra+cichlid&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#bav=on.2,or.&fp=a353ffa192acccac&hl=en-gb&q=yellow+malawi+cichlid&biv=i%7C1%3Bd%7CyB6fjUR48jXg3M%3A - again, just a plain yellow dorsal fin

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile112.html


Lost the last one yesterday. What do I do? Spoken to an aquatics store and she couldn't fully advise me as the man that knows all is off at the moment. She did say if I want I can take the cichlids to them to be rehomed to someone with a larger tank and try again with something more suitable.

Obviously most of you would suggest that as my tank isn't large enough. What CAN I keep in a 60l tank that isn't a guppy or a Molly. I'm a diver so I love exotic fish but no way could I keep marines- far too inexperienced. And the tank definitely isn't large enough!

 

[Agent14]

Sorry you lost one. If those are all the ones you have I have two of those. the Metriaclima greshakei, and the yellow lab. The Vunustus(if that is what you have/had) is a hap. Was that the smaller one. Thin body shape? They tend not to be as harassed as Mbuna vs mbuna. Was the Auratus the one you lost? That would be a female if yellow. 
 
I don't know what to recommend you keep. Is your water naturally hard? or did you do some chemistry no no to get it hard enough for the cichlids? There are options if it isn't too hard like a handful of cordoras then some top level swimmers..I don't know what kind of water you have though to really give you suggestions.. but if you want a community type tank it'll be a little hard in that size but not impossible. Personally in my kids 15 gallon tank (I have pretty neutral water not soft)  We have 3male guppys and more shrimp then I can count and assassin snails. My fav are the 10ish orange eyed blue tiger shrimp.

 

[Wills]

Man this is about one of the worst stories I have seen for bad advice from a shop - utterly shameful. You do get good members of staff in P@H - there are some memebrs of this forum that work in the stores. But I really do hate it... that said though the same advice could have been given out anywhere.
 
In a 60 liter you can keep some kinds of cichlids but africans are not the way. South Americans are your best bet - things like Laetacaras or Nannacaras are good for this size tank as are Checkerboards. You could keep them with a school of small tetras like Ember Tetras or Green Neon Tetras.
 
Wills

 

[BrianMcC]

Totally agree Wills and Agent 14, Its a shame what some shops will do to sell fish!