My first atempt with malawis.

Pictures of my first tank.

I think all fish are Mbunas, I realy need to ID the fishes. Went onto Malawimayhem to try and identify these species only to find that there are about 5000 deferent picks and species!!

If someone out there could help, it will be apreciated!!

I started out with 4 malawis and one pleco, after about six months the family grew with three new borns in the tank and I only realised they where there when they where big enough to come out of hiding to get some food. They were already about a cm long before I realised I had some babys!

Now there are 14 malawis and one pleco, the pleco seems to do fine. It was only about 3 cm when I introduced it to the tank and it is about 7-8cm now.

On reading some of the threads I think I can still increase the population of my tank? total volume of my tank are roughly 255 litres(1.2m). Curently running three home made cannister filters with a capacity of about 5 litres per cannister. Total volume of water pumped in one hour are about 1600 litres. I am in the prosess of upgrading to a 140 litre sump filter. I already have the sump, just need to invent a overflow system and get some pumps to do the job.

Please help me if you can see any thing wrong with this setup, I would apreciate some input from you guys.

 

Looks good. Would you post some pics of your home made canister filters please...8)

 

Grats on the babies @Kobus ... !!! - I alaways say that if your fish manage to reproduce,you must be doing something right...

Dont think they are ALL mbuna - there is a little Aulonocara(Peacock) lurking in pic 4...

 

Looks great to me...

 

Thanks, I will take some picks of the filters and post them for you. They where verry simple to assemble and realy not that expensive. I experimented with diferent types, so I will post them all.

 

Thanks, I will try and post better shots of the different species in my tank, it sounds like you realy know which is which! I read that it is not a good thing to mix the two species?

 

Hap - venustus pic 4

 

Hi Firefly, here are one of my first atempts at a home made filter. I still use the same concept I only upgraded the volume of this specific filter, by replacing it with a bigger container.

 

Malawi's no longer referred to as Haplochromis ---. Pic 4; Nimbochromis venestus. PIC 1; TOO blury to ID. Pic 2; Labidochromis caeruleus. Pic 3; Labeotropheus feulleborni ----; Rest are possible unknowns from cross breeding! Try and take some clearer pics.

 

Remove algae eater from the tank as it eats the same food as the mbuna - ALGAE. If you want to rather add one of the Synodontis catfish specie; Multiplunctatus, Petricola, Nyassae, Nigriventus.

 

Forgot to mention thew numbers you can have in the tank. With the 1600l/hr filtration I would easily put 30-40 fish in the tank. Do weekly 20% water changes and don't feed on at least 1 day a week. You need to look at adding in some more rocks for cover. Overstocking reduces aggression dramatically.

 

the tank looks pretty good dude nice!

i wouldnt say it reduces the aggression, its more that the aggression is more spread out and not any 1 fish gets picked on.

but i have found that overstocking inhibits growth quite a bit and i think its a bad idea to overstock one's tank unless you doing serious water changes

i found out something pretty interesting with regards to aggression and feeding..

when you feed malawis mixed flakes for a continuous period, say 2 weeks, they become overly aggressive, now i believe that this is because in the mixed flakes is a red flake, which is supposed to enhance colour and encourage spawning, which is all good and well, but the same ingredient that makes them want to spawn, it also makes them aggressive, but when you stick to using something like veggie flakes, and instead using the mixed flakes only once a week, it reduces the aggression to almost nothing.

now i have tested this over and over for the past year or so on my wifes malawi tank. put them on 2 weeks with mixed flakes and they become agressive, then 2 weeks on the pro-veg only and they become passive and calm down.

we initially had something like 20 malawis in a 140L but so many fish in a tank like that means high nitrates and slower growth, now we have 7 malawis in there with 1 pleco and 2 polka dot loaches, but the growth and colors are so much better and none of the aggression.

 

Hi scotty, you suggest that i remove the pleco. I dont have any problems with algae at all, is it still needed to put one of the other that you mentioned in the tank?

 

Hi scotty, the plan is to put in more rocks, just need to find the right ones. I also want to change the substrate to a finer silica sand once i put in the sump, any suggestions there? I also want to change the back ground to something lighter?

 

Hi Kobus, I, as a rule, will not sell a pleco to people buying Malawi's from me. Finer sand will be better. I found that the coarser the substrate the more dirt there is in it when doing a gravel clean. I can only assume the finer allows for better bacterial culture in it. I do not have growth problems with a tank of fish that is overcrowded. I tend to have more than enough filtration thus allowing for a little extra feeding. As a rule I prefer to feed a spirulina, kelp or vegetable based food to the Malawi's. Allowing for algae growth on the rocks takes care of the colouring of the fish. My 1000L display tank has great algae growth on the rocks and my mbuna eat this all day. People comment as to how come the colouring of my fish is so great - ALGAE their natural food source.