Looking for reliable (knowledgeable) cichlid breeder

Hey All

Anyone know of a good, reliable and knowledgeable malawi breeder/seller around Pretoria/Midrand/Jhb. I am not having any luck at LFS's. Its my first malawi tank and I havent received much good advice, no real cichlid knowledge and not a great variety of species apart from the standard more common types of which some look like possible hybrids. All are selling as "mixed malawi's".

Any help would be awesome.

Thanks

 

Can contact any of the sponsors and can speak to @azurekoi as well. Know that @Double-D is busy with some research as well specifically on Malawi's as he is in teh process of setting up his Malawi tank.

 

Wonder boom pets has an extensive range of Malawis with the scientific names on the tanks and not mixed batches
I bought beautiful fish from the
Go and have a look then contact @azurekoi
They price from R24 to R60 a fish

 

@Spath when it comes to unique species best would be to do some research on what you want to accomplish (mixed display, family specific or species specialist tank). I'm still scratching my noodle about wanting to do a Aulonocara or Pseudotropheus family specific tank. If you want to do a mixed tank best advice would be to look at compatibility with regards to aggression, con-specific aggression and diet. Malawi's are broken into 3 groups when it comes to diet and I personally believe that it's best to keep carnivores apart from herbivores, however you could mix Omnivores with either one of the two other groups. Then you look at aggression towards other species in the same family or even aggression as a whole. It wouldn't be nice to place the most beautiful fish together only to find them floating around or injured because of 1 over aggressive species. Yes the norm with Malawi's (more specific Mbuna's) is to crowd them up as to damp the aggression which according to my research as of yet appears to be a successful strategy. But that in turn brings along other implications with regards to maintenance schedule and feeding regimes. The Malawi group of cichlids are so vast that picking out your favourites is a daunting task alone. When you did decide on what species you want and the combinations you can contact anyone of the sponsors and they will be more than willing to help. Right there in PTA is Pet Stop which is very helpful and friendly. Also when you give the list through I am sure Didi or one of the others would tell you if the combination can work and if not advise you on alternatives. Let us know how this goes. HTH

 

Ye, I kinda did all the research. Some later than others. After tank cycled, I bought a handful of fish to get started and then added a few. Only later to find out haps and peacocks go together but Mbuna should be kept seperately. Although I havent had any casualties or even fights, I am sure as they mature it will get pretty rough in the tank. What I eventully decided was to take some fish back (the haps) and go for all male more visual tank. I am hoping to get a nice variety of compatible fish. Trying to achieve a nice colorful tank.

Here is a photo, quality is aweful, but I took with my phone. Not a camera person. Also below is a link to a vid where you can see what kind of problems I'm gonna have.



http://s1131.photobucket.com/albums/m555/Spath/?action=view&current=IMG_0692.mp4

You will see some borleyi, a livingstonii and an obliquidens. Also 2 other I cant even identify. See these below...



Anyway, thanks for all the feedback so far. Where is Wonderboom Pets?

 

Spath, do yourself a favour and get rid of the central reef you have in your tank. My experience has made me build a pile of rocks at each end. You will need loads more as what you have does not afford that many hiding places.
When it comes to species make sure you have loads of filtration, more than you think is enough, and then stock your tank. Too many fish and no one can try and dominate. I know the experts are going to shout my advice down but this is personal experience.
What I have recently found is I can get Vallisnera grass to grow very successfully. When I initially set up the 1000l tank in my shop I had it growing. The new fish left it for about 3 mths then destroyed it. About 6mths ago I suddenly thought about planting it right up against the back glass. What a revelation as it has grown forward, 70cm wide tank, and is about 5cm from the front glass. They crop bits of it but I now have an extremely good thick patch of grass between my two huge piles of rock. I have about 60-80kgs rock in each pile. Battle to get good photo's as I have too much back light causing reflection off the glass due to the bright light from outside. It it right at the front of my shop and gets about 2-3hrs direct sunlight on it during the summer mornings. Stunning to sit there at 7am and watch the fish with pure sunlight on them!
Make sure you get 2-3 males together with 5-8 females of a species.
Hope this will help you in your endeavour to create a pleasant tank.
By the way, what is the size of your tank!

 

Its 240 liters.

I have since changed fish around and now only have mbuna in tank. I am not really keen on growing any ground cover as I have noticed the ground is well agitated in the mornings. It seems they love picking around in the sand at night and digging out little burrows all through the day. Dont really want to take that away from them.

I am over filtered and have been monitoring the nitrates that havent gotten gotten to any concerning levels. Doing 20% weekly water change and fish are generally happy. I'll consider the central reef, but I dont see how adding rocks to either side is any different from spreading them across the tank. I havent closed any caves so usually when someone in the tank chases another, they just weave through the caves to get away. I will keep an eye on it though and if livestock are having a problem getting away from a bully, I will definitely do something about it.

But thats for the input.

 

Post some pictures of the new fish

 

Here's a link to a vid. Excuse the quality, but was pretty large. Had to reduce the resolution to get it to an acceptable size.

http://s1131.photobucket.com/albums/m555/Spath/?action=view&current=cichlids_pb.mp4

Its important to know most are juveniles. I am unsure of the Lombardoi and am waiting for the to color as the LFS was unable to sex them. The only sub adults in the tank are the Greshakei and the uber red Red Zebra. I am guessing he was fed color enhancing food or hormones. I have only had him for 2 days and I can already she the red slowly fading (thank goodness).

In order of appearence where focused (also not 100% sure, so ur welcome to correct me) and I wont repeat one already mentioned:

New Red top Hongi
Auratus
uber Red Zebra
Lombardoi
Metriaclima sp. "Zebra Chilumba" (the purple one)
Lab. Caeruleus
Young P. Saulosi
Young P. Flavus
Another Hongi
Socolofi
Young Kenyi (starting to change to yellow on fins)
Albino Red Zebra
My biggest fish at the mo, Met. Greshakei
Iodotropheus sprengerae (Rusty)

And thats the highlights really... Followed by some more panning and shoddy camera work with my iphone

The vid ends with the flavus. Not really clear on this vid, but usually when I am feeding he is most yellow. But they are all still very young.

 

Hi Spath, There is no Malawi known as a "kenyi". If I look at your list you have a great collect of the more aggressive mbuna. The Greshakei. Lombadoi, Estherae, Auratus and Saulosi males will all try to dominate. By the way the Saulosi males are not yellow. They turn blue when mature.

 

Ye I know kenyi is the common name for P. Lombardoi

Like I said, I am not 100% as this is my first cichlid tank and am still learning as I go. I also know both saulosi and lombardoi will change color, but the opposite ways. Meaning lombardoi will change from blue to yellow and saulosi yellow to blue. I am just riding out the juvenile phase to see whats what and I will make a few changes. I am also starting to think my Rusty is a female even though it has eggspots, because doesnt appear to be changing from brown to purple. Any idea of when (after how long) I can start expecting these color changes?

 

Just be careful of the Auratus... They can be very aggressive!