New Malawi Setup

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 ?

You certainly can have plants, however they need to be cichlid proof so to speak. Some strands of Anubias etc are a little more durable. Cichlids tend to eat plants and dig them out of the substrate. This is half the reason I have gone with rock only, not to mention I have another planted tank and the mainainance seems to be a heck of a lot higher.

I am adding more rock this week when it arrives in the post!

Thanks for the comments on my fish :)

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?

I think you could go with a couple of cats. The cats and Cichlids should hopefully not mess with each other at all. Keep in mind though that the cichlids do like to dig in the sand. If I were you I would go for maybe one or two cats and then stick with more cichlids. Cichlid's numbers is more dependant on aggression spread etc. So you need to somewhat overstock and over filter the tank. I personally think the whole "aggression" thing is a little big of a cop out though, I haven't owned any cichlids with aggression problems. I think it just all comes down to the individual fish and their surroundings. If your tank is setup correctly you may never have to worry about aggression due to a sufficient amount of hidey holes!
 
Hey guys, just an update:

Current stocking: 1 x Pseudotropheus Pindani, 1 x Red Zebra, 5 x Pseudotropheus Elongatus (with multiple Juvis), 5 x Labidochromis Electric Yellows, 5 x Melanochromis Mainganos.

I currently have my Pseudo Elongatis breeding! I am very happy about this as they're beautiful fish! :good:
Not to mention if you have a look at a shot of one of my electric yellows I think she has eggs in her mouth! :hyper:
Breeding out of control!

I have added a heck of a lot more photos to this post. I hope you like them. I managed to grab a quick shot of one of the juvis. :shout:

I managed to get a shot also of my Pseudotropheus Pindani (Powder Blue) who always likes to hide when I get the camera out.

You will even see my lovely Red Zebra who I am in love with :D

Enjoy the new pics and please comment...


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Forgot to mention that the photos were only taken on my iPhone (that's why they're grainy and poor quality) so they don't really do it justice.
I am hoping to get a new camera soon then I will add better pics. The water is in fact crystal clear.
 
Bit of an update:

Couldn't get a clear photo, however one of the yellow labs has a mouthful of babies... I can see their little eyes in her mouth very cute.

Terribly worried they'll get eaten though :(!
 
love this tank, looks really good. :good:
 
Hi, Great tank!

Im thinking of doing something like what you have done with yours and I was wondering where you go the rock from? Love the idea of them swimming around all the little nooks of the rock.

Cheers
 
Thanks a lOt guys

Hypnotoad: I got the rocks from an Australian website they're called volcanic lava rocks. You can get them from size small up to size XL. They're only mediums I think.

The site I got them from was ageofaquariums
Aquariumproducts.com.au

I wanted slate but couldnt find any.
 
Pseudotropheus Elongatus has another mouthful of babies as well!

Waiting for that to spit as well as the Electric Yellow! Certainly hope they don't get eaten :(
 

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