A couple of days ago, I changed my American cichlid aquarium into an Australian Rainbowfish aquarium. However, me being so used to working with cichlids, did a 50% water change on my Rainbowfish aquarium, killing all of my Rainbows. I drained the entire aquarium and refilled it. Now, about 6-7 days later, I have transformed the barren aquarium into an Lake Malawi African cichlid aquarium. I originally began my cichlid experience with African cichlids, before I switched to American cichlids, but I only had kept mbuna. In my 38g aquarium, I have fully stocked this aquarium with 8 juvenile African cichlids and 1 Red Tailed shark. The African cichlid stock consists of mbuna, a peacock, and a hap. I have a electric yellow, a red zebra, an ob zebra, a red peacock, an acei, a electric blue johanni, a taiwan reef, and one yellow and black cichlid that looks like the johanni, however I cannot recall the name at the moment. All of the fish in the aquarium are an inch or smaller. I've been experimenting with my filter media, in order to find the perfect media for my tank, which is low maintenance, and rare maintenance. So far, I have been at peace with using lava rock media in my Penguin and Aqueon hang on the back filters. In combination with lava rock, there is Golden Pathos in my filters, which in combination, does an outstanding job with filtration. My water is crystal clear, ammonia is at 0, nitrites are at 0, and nitrates are at 0. My pH is at 7.2, which is directly from the tap, I do not have any buffers in my aquarium, other than a few natural rocks. I plan on planting the golden pathos inside of the aquarium, (it is possible, if done it plenty of times before). You could consider me a novice at keeping African cichlids, but intermediate at keeping cichlids other than Africans. I am wondering if my stock of these 8 ACs is overkill or underkill for my little 38g. I know it is a risk combining mbuna with peacocks and haps, but thus far, in the little time I have had them, I have had no problems with aggressive. That may change in the future. So any tips on African cichlid keeping would help. I have already watched many different African cichlid keeping youtube channels, such as Mbuna Marcus, African Cichlid Hub, and KGTropicals. Pictures coming soon.
38g Lake Malawi Aquarium
- Thread starter Sha tha Aquarist
- Start date
Thanks. So you currently have the following fish "I have a electric yellow, a red zebra, an ob zebra, a red peacock, an acei, a electric blue johanni, a taiwan reef, and one yellow and black cichlid that looks like the johanni, however I cannot recall the name at the moment and a red tail shark."
Your fish are young and should be fine for a few months but you do have some aggressive fish, the zebra and johanni, that may cause problems when they start maturing. Also the acei, depending on variant, will probably grow too large for this tank.
Is the yellow and black cichlid called a crabro or bumblebee cichlid?
Your fish are young and should be fine for a few months but you do have some aggressive fish, the zebra and johanni, that may cause problems when they start maturing. Also the acei, depending on variant, will probably grow too large for this tank.
Is the yellow and black cichlid called a crabro or bumblebee cichlid?
It must be a crabro, because I know for certain it isnt a bumblee, as I tried to avoid dealing with one of those. Think it was sold to me as a Chipoke, but I dont remember or know what a Chipoke is. I do not know what varient of acei I have. Thanks
You're eventually going to run into aggression problems with your mix. I would try to swap everything for a small group of labs, rusties, saulosi, or an afra species.
So the problem is with aggression and not tank size? If that's the case, I will grow them until they get about 3-4 inches, then send them back to LFS, so that way I can make a profit instead of losing money. If all I need is a bigger tank, I can move them into a 55g once they get more size on them.
Update: Cichlids have beaten the snot out of my RT shark. RT has been moved into a hospital tank and will most likely be returned to my LFS or put into a different tank.
The johanni, auratus, and zebras are 3 pretty aggressive species. I wouldn't be surprised if the auratus decided he wanted the whole tank for himself. People seem to have the most luck with them in 75 gallon or larger tanks.