Help! My Malawi's are going mad!

[Louise_rudd]

Hi Guys,

I am in need of some help.

I'm new to keeping Chilids, but have always kept fish in the past. I did all my research and spoke to the guys in the fish store to find out everything that would be best for keeping these fish, knowing how territorial they can be ect.

I set up the tank properly, and introduced 5 Malawi's about 3 months ago and have found my self quite surprised at how well they've got on. Untill now.

Yesterday I discover a dead one on the bottom of the tank. I was pretty gutted, but accepted the fact that fish die. Today however, they've been going absolutely tits. Chasing one around in particular who was become pretty stressed out and you can see where its fins have been nipped. (I've put said fish under a pretty big clear cup for the minuit just to give it break, but I know i can't keep it there.)

Since then the other fish have been fighting like nothing I've ever seen before and I would looooove some advice on what to do.... These fish are great and I don't want to lose them.

Any help and advice would be brilliant!!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Aqualoon]

Just kind of needs the basics here. What size tank, how many fish, what kind of fish, etc.

With that people can then start to give you advice on what's going on in your tank.

Oh and welcome to MFK, as soon as you can get that info up here the sooner we can help ya out

 

[Louise_rudd]

Its 65 litres (i think) and I've got 4 Malawi Cichlids. I was told when I bought them that they couldn't tell the sex as they were too young, but there's a yellow one, a purple stripy one, a purple and black one and an orange one (the orange one is under the cup)

Does that help at all?

Thanks again

 

[Aqualoon]

Somewhat, it establishes that you're not trying to cram aggressive fish into a 15 litre tank - which we do see around here.

First thing is you need to get a clear idea of what you have for your current stock. African cichlids -especially mbuna- you need to overstock with. This means you'll need solid filtration. The reason why africans you want to go the overstocked route is so that they will spread their aggression. What they will do is pick one off at a time when not kept in numbers until there is only a few left - which is what you're seeing now.

If you can, get a few pics of them and we can help you further.

 

[Regalblue]

Throw a load of rockwork in the tank for now, then get the fish ID'd. (I'm thinking Kenyi & Red Zebra are a few of yrs)
After you know what fish you have then you can research them & appropriately house them with the right size tank & decor.

 

[Louise_rudd]

Here are some pictures, I'm not too hopeful the orange one will last much longer, but if you think over stocking will help, I will give that a go. How many would be over stocking without craming them in too much?

thanks

 

[Louise_rudd]

All I know is that these are Malawi Cichlids. This is what they were labeled up as in the shop and I couldn't find any info online about any further specification of what species they are, maybe you guys can tell from the pics?

The filter I have is the biggest internal filter I could get, and does a cracking job at the moment.

 

[Ash]

the one in the second pic, is that one being one of the bigger bullys?? It almost looks like an auratus by the fin and stripes except it looks funny, so I am not so sure (if this is the case, its a nasty fish, I had one and it killed over half my stock). Same goes with the first/last pic looks kinda like a kenyi but I am not so great at malawi ID's anymore =\

First off 65 liters = 17 gallons? Is that conversion correct? If it is that tank is to small for those fish. I had a 30 gallon tank (113 liters?) and peresonally I thought that was to small for them, esp. when full grown. Even slightly overstocking my tank at that size I had issues. I would suggest a 55 gallon for space, overstocking, over filtering and a ton of rockwork. From my experience unless you separate the ones picking on each other your going to lose more fish. When keeping Mbuna there is a balance you have to find.

 

[Regalblue]

Yeah you want a minimum of a 75gal - IMO
2ND pic could be M.Chipoke
3rd pic is M.Estrae (red zebra)
4th pic is M.Lombardoi (Kenyi)

 

[Blue2Fyre]

Yeah you want a minimum of a 75gal - IMO
2ND pic could be M.Chipoke
3rd pic is M.Estrae (red zebra)
4th pic is M.Lombardoi (Kenyi)

^ They don' get much meaner than Chipokae. Kenyi are also quite nasty.