New 4ft Malawi

[Robris]

Im getting a new 4ft long 60gal tank in my bedroom and would like to make it a malawi tank. Im just wondering how many mbuna could I fit in a tank that size?
Im going to have lots of big rocks stacked differently to make some caves/tunnels with a couple hardly plants here and there.

 

[Xebadir]

Congrats, what substrate are you going for?

With regards to numbers for the tank size, it depends on the size of the fish and aggression, just make sure you have plenty of caves, and sturdy rockwork so your pretties dont get crushed.

Heres suggestions from Cichlid-Forum regarding numbers:
http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/cookie_cutter_55g.php
Dont forget to make sure your overfiltered.
As they say: 12 Fish of the smaller varieties(more passive) 10 for the larger more agressive: you could probably get away with another fish just because your a 60, but thats up to you. Good luck .

 

[Robris]

Im still deciding on gravel or sand, what do you use in your 30g mbuna tank? I saw this really nice gravel at my lfs, the colour was like beach sand it went well with the rocks I might get that saves me some trouble with cleaning sand

 

[Xebadir]

I went with a basaltic fine grain gravel 3-7mm mixture. Nice and dark(going to post a pic up tommorow after i get to upload). In my shelldweller i went for a crushed coral mix which looks great with the shells for the fish. Its really up to your preferences although i reckon for planting a gravel would be better: just remember your mbuna will do the sculpting for you, so make sure your rockwork is sturdy. My male is constantly digging.

 

[Robris]

I went with a basaltic fine grain gravel 3-7mm mixture. Nice and dark(going to post a pic up tommorow after i get to upload). In my shelldweller i went for a crushed coral mix which looks great with the shells for the fish. Its really up to your preferences although i reckon for planting a gravel would be better: just remember your mbuna will do the sculpting for you, so make sure your rockwork is sturdy. My male is constantly digging.

Look foward to seeing your pic. Yeah i got a couple juvs right now in a tiny tank and they just keep digging, they have already made two of my fake plants bare naked lol

 

[caboose_122]

for substrate i would personally add crushed coral, you can get it in many sizes but it is alittle on the expensive side but it looks good and buffers teh ph which is good, sand is good to, gravel is is also ok but sand and crished coral i think are beter

 

[dthoffsett]

I just switched over to aragonite sand from crushed coral and must say I defiantely prefer the sand. They can dig in it better and it looks more attractive IMO. Though it is more expensive than standard play sand, you don't use as much as you might think. For instance, in my 75gal once I put the rocks in, I only needed 30lbs of sand for a depth of about 2 inches.