I'm giving in!

[nitrofish1]

and going to the dark side......

I'd like to do a 37 gallon (30x12x22) tank with malawi cichlids.

I have the general setup and understanding of the parameters, but a few stocking questions.

Can the cichlids you often find in the "Assorted Malawi Cichlid's" tank be mixed outside of the petstore?

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[EastBay]

The ones labeled "Mixed Africans" tend to be hybrid fish. Africans, Mbuna in particular, aren't real picky about which species they breed with.
That doesn't mean they're any worse than any other, but many hardcore Malawi keepers are concerned you might then sell any offspring as "full blooded" whatevers and dilute the strain.
But whatever. I'm not one of those guys!

 

[shellies215]

I don't care so much about them being hybrids(which they are), I just think that for a few extra bucks you can get MUCH nicer looking fish. The way I look at it is your dropping a couple hundred bucks to set up a tank for your enjoyment, so why get the fish out of the stores "garbage can"?

 

[nitrofish1]

The ones labeled "Mixed Africans" tend to be hybrid fish. Africans, Mbuna in particular, aren't real picky about which species they breed with.
That doesn't mean they're any worse than any other, but many hardcore Malawi keepers are concerned you might then sell any offspring as "full blooded" whatevers and dilute the strain.
But whatever. I'm not one of those guys!

I don't care so much about them being hybrids(which they are), I just think that for a few extra bucks you can get MUCH nicer looking fish. The way I look at it is your dropping a couple hundred bucks to set up a tank for your enjoyment, so why get the fish out of the stores "garbage can"?

im not looking to breed just to have a nice setup.

what would you guys say about 4 to that tank? and yes i can go for the nicer variety, but can i mix the nicer ones?

 

[EastBay]

At my max, I probably had 25-30 in my 90g, so figure roughly half that for 37g?
You can mix the nicer ones, just be sure that they are compatible. For example: Some are mostly vegetarians while others are carnivores. Would be hard to make sure they each got the proper diet.
I would suggest going to cichlid-forum.com. They have a ton of info on the different African species. They don't frown on Africans as much!

 

[nitrofish1]

At my max, I probably had 25-30 in my 90g, so figure roughly half that for 37g?
You can mix the nicer ones, just be sure that they are compatible. For example: Some are mostly vegetarians while others are carnivores. Would be hard to make sure they each got the proper diet.
I would suggest going to cichlid-forum.com. They have a ton of info on the different African species. They don't frown on Africans as much!

12-15 in a 37g sounds tight (and not the cool version of tight). ill ask around on this forum.

 

[nfored]

How is this the dark side?? I though the dark side was marine...

I love the mix cichlids I see at stores good luck send some pics my way.

 

[shellies215]

I would say 10 fish is around the right number. Look at peacocks and some of the smaller mbuna's like salousi. Stay away from any haplochromis species, as most of them look cute in the store, but are 10 in.+ predators not suitable for your tank

 

[nitrofish1]

How is this the dark side?? I though the dark side was marine...

I love the mix cichlids I see at stores good luck send some pics my way.

for me, cichlids r the dark side, wasnt really into them, but now they are starting to look good to me. SW is always good

I would say 10 fish is around the right number. Look at peacocks and some of the smaller mbuna's like salousi. Stay away from any haplochromis species, as most of them look cute in the store, but are 10 in.+ predators not suitable for your tank

ok so i usually use liveaquaria to get a good reference to what im looking at, so your talking about these?

http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+831+1570&pcatid=1570

http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+831+960&pcatid=960

http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+831+1569&pcatid=1569

 

[nfored]

Those are some colorful little guys, hopefully I can start my dark side thread soon, been secretly stocking up on marine equipment. I had a few of the first two links but due to a huge mistake they died along with about 20 other fish. I only had them for a little while but they where in odd shapped 20G.