Lake Malawi, tank size?

[neoh]

I'm looking to start a Malawi tank, was curious as to how many of these species would be suitable for a 33g tank?

I would like to overstock + overfilter to keep away from territories. How many is too many?

[ngo911]

I am just about to start up my own Malawi tank, a 55g. Still need to find sand and rocks etc. I haven't decided on the final stocking either but I found this website very very helpful The Cichlid Recipe: African Cichlid Stocking Suggestions. It gives short descriptions of the different genera of most common African cichlids. They also have a compatibility chart found here African Cichlid Compatibility Chart v2.4

[Mferko]

i have a 37g with 8 demasoni, 3 yellow labs, 4 aceii yellow tail (click to enlarge)
none are longer than 3 inches atm



(this pic shows 4 yellow labs, i gave one away)
the aggression is all between the demasoni pretty much, also between the male yellow lab (Homer, he has a 5 oclock shadow) and his 2 females.

also got a 10g growout tank for all the fry cuz the demasoni and yellow labs are spawning constantly, the aceii are offspring from ones i bred a while back and i no longer have the parents, they arent breeding yet.
theres 5 baby BN plecos in there too i'll prolly move a few up to the 37g once theyre bigger.

heres a good website i did most of my research on before setting it up: Cichlid-Forum Library -- cichlid articles, profiles, maps, projects, and videos

[ngo911]

Mferko, where did you get your rock? I know fish world has some but its a bit far for me.

[clintgv]

I have a 40-45 gal tank. 4 yellow labs, 5 yellow tail aceis, 2 albino BN plecos. I might be adding a few demasoni's also when April gets them in . I was gonna say Fish World Langley has them for 1.40/lb (you can make it get cheaper by buying alot of rocks), but you said it was far for you ^^

[budahrox]

IMHO
Malawis shouldn't be kept in anything smaller than a 55g with a 4ft footprint.
With careful consideration as to number of fish & species.
If the smaller tank size is the only option than I would suggest trying the Tanganyikan shell dwellers. They are very entertaining & thrive well in the smaller environment.
Cheers!!

[onefishtwofish]

i agree with Don. even in a 4ft tank if you end up with more than 1 dominant natured fish they will between them terrorize all the other fish into the middle. im running into that with my victorians in their 48g. and it doesn't seem to be they r content with their cave, they come out and patrol a good 1.5 ft area. even worse if they r guarding young.

[Mferko]

you can run into aggression problems in an improperly stocked tank whether its large or small. and it should be noted there is HUGE size variance between different malawi cichlids, they are not all the same, far from it. from dwarf mbuna that only get 3-4 inches to the slightly larger peacocks to the bigger haps, malawi has a huge size variance. 4 feet is not needed for mbuna... it would be for haps like a red empress type thing.

imho just keep 1 male of each species and give him several females, and keep species that are very different looking so they dont fight between species.
its not hard it just takes some researching and the occasional fish may need to be returned if it turns out to be a subdominant male instead of female.

i agree with Don. even in a 4ft tank if you end up with more than 1 dominant natured fish they will between them terrorize all the other fish into the middle. im running into that with my victorians in their 48g. and it doesn't seem to be they r content with their cave, they come out and patrol a good 1.5 ft area. even worse if they r guarding young.

i had that happen when i first started keeping malawi cichlids and i made the mistake of getting them from the mixed cichlid tanks at local stores, resulting in horrible m/f ratios within species. give the males lots of ladies to chase and they will be more content. the males are polygamous harem breeders and arent content with just one female, esp when shes already holding eggs and wants nothing to do with him.

currently i have a dominant pseudotropheus demasoni nesting side by side with a dominant yellow lab, they couldn't care less about each other. they just go off and try to find females of their own species to impress and bring back to the nest. in the meantime the aceii spend most of their time swimming as a group towards the top of the tank.


word of caution though, steer clear of melanochromis auratus, its aggressive as hell even in a 100g tank and since the males are blue and females are yellow they seem to be quite aggressive towards many other species.

[Mferko]

Mferko, where did you get your rock? I know fish world has some but its a bit far for me.

its from IPU in richmond
their stock at the moment is terrible though, maybe call and find out when theyre getting more in
i think clingtv/clintgv knows of another place to get some.

[budahrox]

Well I guess beating your chest about being able to keep Malawis in a smaller tank is the main issue here. Sounds like overcrowding & cramped quarters is the way to go although I have always thought that the best possible living conditions should be available to these fish we like to keep as pets. Obviously 20 odd yrs of keeping Africans has taught me wrong. Maybe pick up a 20g for your Africans & save that whopper of a 33g & do Aros or Pacus or maybe both. Don't forget to have a big filter & do lots of WC's. Then you can do anything you like, right????
LMFAO!!!
Cheers!!!