Most people consider only dense piles of rocks when thinking about Lake Malawi tank biotopes.
When I kept cichlids from lake Malwi I kept those species that lived over vast stretches of sandy desert like areas, where the cichlids acted similar to the Geophagines of S America
One of my favorites was Fossorchromis rostratus, they could disappear underneath the sand, and although I kept a shoal of a half dozen 10¨individuals in a rockless 150 gal tank....... if startled the tank would appear empty because they dove head first into the thick sandy substrate.
There are a number of others that don´t quite fit into the typically thought of rock strewn biotopes most people use for Malawians
Lichnochromis, aand Taeniolethrinops, are a few others..
I also gravitated to similar the sand and planted Valillisneria meadow like field areas when keepinh Tangayikans


I also liked those sand oriented ëarth eater¨types when keeping Maladasy cichlids, such as Ptychochromis ¨tanantsy¨


