Bamboo in lake malawi

[spitz006]

Is there any part of Lake Malawi that would have submerged bamboo? I am going to be planting my malawi tank with a type of plant in the buckwheat family, it's from china/japan but it looks just like any normal bamboo. I just want the tank to look like a malawi biotope but not sure if it will be totally accurate with the bamboo. Thanks.

 

[DJRansome]

Bamboo is not native to Malawi...it is a foreign invader. When you see pictures of haps and peacocks and mbuna in Lake Malawi you generally see rocks and sand but no plants.

There ARE plants around some of the shallow waterlines, but plants are not the expected part of a Malawi cichlid biotope.

There are haps that spawn and leave their fry in weedy shallows, but then then migrate back to the rock castles in the sand.

 

[spitz006]

Dang. I really just want to cover up this ugly overflow box, and the bamboo would work perfectly to do that. Guess I'll do it anyway but it's too bad I won't be looking at a natural looking biotope.

 

[qldmick]

You could use val, they have some native in Malawi, you will need rocks/pebbles around the base or your cichlids will dig it up.
Otherwise I have Anubias and normal/crested Java fern in my Malawi tank, have had for the past 10 years or so.

 

[duanes]

You could use val, .

Agree with this, there are sandy areas in the rift lakes where there are vast fields of Val. the cichlids that live there are not necessarily the rock dwellers though.
They are those species that have evolved to live in that sandy type habitat, and almost resemble (are convergent ) and live like the Geophagines of S America.
Fossorochromis rostratus from Malawi, end the genus Enantiopus from Lake Tankganyika are just a couple examples.

 

[duanes]

Just an afterthought, if you are referring to "Lucky Bamboo", it is not really bamboo at all, but a part of the Lily family.
Some species originated in Cameroon, in Africa, others are from Asia.