New Malawi Setup

[c-dub]

I've had this tank approximately a year now as a community tank. Decided to move all the fish into my discus tank and start out fresh with a Lake Malawi setup.
Please provide any feedback or thoughts on the tank and it's inhabitants... The tank is a 240L (Tall) AquaOne Aquastyle 980T tank. Only thing in the tank is medium to fine sand substrate and lava rock.

Currently stocks:
1 x pseudotropheus elongatus
1 x pseudotropheus Pindani
1 x labidochromis electric yellow
1 x melanochromis maingano

Wanting to buy:
1 x Pseudotropheus Salousi
1 x Pseudotropheus Acei Msuli Point
1 x Pseudotropheus Elongatus Gold Bar
1 x Melanochromis Auratus
1 x Melanochromis Johanni

(Most of the the fish are hiding at the moment because I just re-scaped so they're finding their feet, no pun intended!)
Apologies for the photo quality, I did photography at Uni but still can't manage to get this dodgy sony camera to pull a decent shot with the fluro lights!
I also couldn't seem to get my beautiful pseudotropheus elongatus to come and show his face, so I will be adding more photos up soon when the mob become active.

***UPDATE***

 

[gunman]

Looks good, one thing I would maybe suggest is that you may be better keeping more than 1 of each species. Are you intending to keep an all male tank? Some of your species are hard to sex and looking at your list you have 4 psuedothropheus and 3 melanochromis species. They may crossbreed, esp if there are no females of their own species. You could also end up with some strange agression patterns too. I would suggest stocking a male\2-3 female form a species and keeping fewer species.

This ratio can be hard to set up, as said they are hard to sex. I would imagine you will be buying juvi's anyway so buy twice the amount you need and watch how they behave. You'll be able to establish sex before they are all full grown and you can part with the ones you don't need\want.

Am I right in thinking that there are import restrictions in Australia for some species?

 

[c-dub]

Looks good, one thing I would maybe suggest is that you may be better keeping more than 1 of each species. Are you intending to keep an all male tank? Some of your species are hard to sex and looking at your list you have 4 psuedothropheus and 3 melanochromis species. They may crossbreed, esp if there are no females of their own species. You could also end up with some strange agression patterns too. I would suggest stocking a male\2-3 female form a species and keeping fewer species.

This ratio can be hard to set up, as said they are hard to sex. I would imagine you will be buying juvi's anyway so buy twice the amount you need and watch how they behave. You'll be able to establish sex before they are all full grown and you can part with the ones you don't need\want.

Am I right in thinking that there are import restrictions in Australia for some species?

Ahh right thanks for the input. Yeah I was informed that going with one of each species of psudothropeus should be ok. I want to get the other listed fish to fill the tank out a little more.
I might get a couple more pseudotropheus elongatus and pseudotropheus pindani if you think that's a good idea... I absolutely love their colours!

 

[gunman]

Yeah, If you get a male and a female of different species they may crossbreed, also you could end up with 3 males and 1 female, poor girl if that happens.

Good thing is, most psuedotropheus females are very different colouration to the males (such as salousi), not in all cases though!

It's your choice, but I would keep them in small groups and less species, I have a 210l tank with 4 species and will end up keeping 4-5 of each. I think (and may be worng) that some of the males won't colour up as much if there are no 'ladies' to impress either.

 

[markandhisfish]

lovely fish , very colourful. looks really cool how they poke their heads out of the rocks

 

[c-dub]

Thanks for the comment!
My stockist of lava rock is currently out! OH NO!
I was going to add some terracotta pots and some halved ones to make more hidey holes, however I don't want to taint the natural look with man made pots!

 

[c-dub]

Just bought 4 more Juvi pseudotropheus elongatus!

 

[simonas]

looking good

I;m being drawn towardsd these kind of fish having never paid them much attention before! any new pics?

 

[c-dub]

looking good

I;m being drawn towardsd these kind of fish having never paid them much attention before! any new pics?

I will take some pics now and show u a video as well if you hold the line! lol.

I have just ordered more lava rock too, so soon the back wall will be all rock.

 

[c-dub]

Here is a few quick snaps and a HD video I made (all from my video camera).

***pics and video added to inital post***

 

[SensesFail]

Tank looks good!! I'm going for this type of setup in my 190 litre. What's yourvstocking quantitys? Iv looked at your list but their looks to bevbigger quantities in your tank? How many would you suggest in a 190L tank keeping similar fish that grown to around 4-5 inches?

Chees sorry to but in!

 

[c-dub]

If I were you I would stick to a couple of species. A 190L tank really depends on the dimensions. You could stock towards 18 smaller varieties (adults), keeping in mind you don't want the adult size to be more than say 4-5 inches.
One thing I think a lot of people forget too, is that when you add a lot of rocks and caves like I have, it takes up a lot of space, technically reducing the amount of actual water in the tank.

You can overstock a cichlid tank of this kind, based on the fact that the more fish the less aggression towards individual fish.

If your'e going to add a higher number of fish, you really need to over filter your tank as well.


To answer your other question, I have a total of 16 fish in this tank,

5 x pseudotropheus elongatus
5 x labidochromis electric yellow
5 x melanochromis maingano
and 1 x pseudotropheus Pindani (the larger powder blue)

I have ordered more lava rock to completely cover the back of the tank, and will get some more fish when I can afford it!

 

[SensesFail]

If I were you I would stick to a couple of species. A 190L tank really depends on the dimensions. You could stock towards 18 smaller varieties (adults), keeping in mind you don't want the adult size to be more than say 4-5 inches.
One thing I think a lot of people forget too, is that when you add a lot of rocks and caves like I have, it takes up a lot of space, technically reducing the amount of actual water in the tank.

You can overstock a cichlid tank of this kind, based on the fact that the more fish the less aggression towards individual fish.

If your'e going to add a higher number of fish, you really need to over filter your tank as well.


To answer your other question, I have a total of 16 fish in this tank,

5 x pseudotropheus elongatus
5 x labidochromis electric yellow
5 x melanochromis maingano
and 1 x pseudotropheus Pindani (the larger powder blue)

I have ordered more lava rock to completely cover the back of the tank, and will get some more fish when I can afford it!

Brilliant cheers for the advise and reply! The fish I'm after are the same If not similar to your with a few catfish in for good measure(when the store gets them anyway) I have tried to make little caves using ocean rock and some fake plants. Just so maybe 10 fish would be better with all of the decoration etc. But then is it 10 cichlids or 6 cichlids and 4 cats or would you not count the cats space wise because they hang out at the bottom?

 

[simonas]

looks ace mate, wish I had a spare tank now!!!

The blue striped fish are beautiful and the contrast between the blues and yellows is fab!!

well in mate. can you have any plants in these tanks ?

 

[M.R Otter]

I realy miss my malawi cichlids.... By just remembering them dashing to the tank wall and begging for food makes tear up. However... Their so fun!! They get so tame very quickly!!