Adding Clown loaches to established malawi tank

[RD.]

While I agree with what Stephen St.Clair said about some fish will work, and some won't, regarding total numbers, I don't consider juvenile fish being together, a success story. Keep a tank of adult all males together for several years, and you will often find that even after a few years of being together males being males things can change overnight. It seems to be a common theme on forums, youtube etc, where people have success for several months, or even a year or two, and they consider it a long term community success story. It seldom ends that way once all the fish become sexually mature - no matter the species, or community being shown in pics, or video.

The difficult part about this story is the OP has already stated that where he lives rehoming fish is difficult, hence his current dilemma with his clown loaches.

 

[Adam GR]

G

Consider keeping a reserve African tank. As things progress some of the cichlids will blossom, some won't. Some will prove to be unsuitable for your set up.
Use the reserve tank to temporarily house the unsuitable & unwanted cichlids. Rehome or trade them. I use this method.
Most of your 16 Africans are juveniles. I'd let them grow out. You'll figure out which ones need to stay or go.
Each keepers set up, population size & combination of fish differ. What works for some fails for others. I probably keep over twice the amount of Africans you do in my 5 ft tank. Doesn't appear crowded, all healthy fish, no unmanageable aggression issues.
Successfully keeping an African cichlid community is all about learning how to make adjustments.

Thanks, really good advice.
I have this 130L tank set up as a temporary tank, I have only 5 tiger barbs in it.
I m running this malawi tank from about 15 months and I made a common mistake, I didn't add all fishes at the same time.
Now 6 of them is really big and colorful, all the rest is between 3-5 inches and struggle to color up. Will they eventually get theirs colors or they will stay subdominant and grey forever?

 

[Adam GR]

While I agree with what Stephen St.Clair said about some fish will work, and some won't, regarding total numbers, I don't consider juvenile fish being together, a success story. Keep a tank of adult all males together for several years, and you will often find that even after a few years of being together males being males things can change overnight. It seems to be a common theme on forums, youtube etc, where people have success for several months, or even a year or two, and they consider it a long term community success story. It seldom ends that way once all the fish become sexually mature - no matter the species, or community being shown in pics, or video.

The difficult part about this story is the OP has already stated that where he lives rehoming fish is difficult, hence his current dilemma with his clown loaches.

Yes, rehomeing is a dillema but its not imposible. I live on couple miles long island with small community and pet shop which doesn't accept returns. I manage to convince my best friend to get a 90g tank and he basically keep all my unwanted fishes ( huge JD, sevrum and some females africans and also few males which doesn't get along in my tank).
I also implement a tank in my sister home and my mum home??

 

[Stephen St.Clair]

I don't believe you made a stocking error. I didn't stock all 50 of my African Cichlids at the same time either.
Its doubtful that all 16 of the male Peacocks will display full coloration at the same time. Depending on the current state of the heirarchy, a few might color down, while up & comers will color up.
Of course females will be forever gray.