New to Cichlids, 4x2x2 Lake Malawi tank stocking suggestions

[Mpfprocess]

Hi,

I have in the past kept some freshwater fish in a much smaller tank (50L) and then I had this 4x2x2 (~450L) for a pet Turtle. I no longer have the Turtle and have had the tank emptied for around 5 months now. The tank has:

- 2 x 300w heaters

- Aqua One Nautilius 2700L p/h cannister filter

- 2000L p/h powerhead (to try and eliminate dead spots, not sure how well this works being eBay brand)

- Dual T5 light fixure with 2 HO bulbs, blue and white

- Pool Filter Sand as the Substrate with a few rocks/concrete blocks throughout

Tank currently looks like this: https://i.imgur.com/DZopf2L.jpg

So I have had a look at the fish on a few websites and have decided that the Lake Malawi Cichlids are my favorite. They seem to be the most colorful, my ideal fish tank would have lots of smaller colourful fish with a handful or larger centrepiece fish. I am not too fussed about if they breed as I have a local fish store who is happy to take them. I mainly want the tank for looks as it is a large item in my living room.

Any suggestions? I am not even sure where to start there is so many types and Aqadvisor seems to suggest everything is wrong together. I really love peacocks and the yellow labs!

Thanks,

- Matt

[bluetang]

Peacocks and yellow labs will go well together, but stick to one type of peacock only unless you just want to display males (they will cross breed if u keep different varieties).

Other great fish that are relatively peaceful and generally easy to get are:

C moorii (aka blue Dolphins -reasonably large still quite peaceful)

P electra (sand sifter)

P taeniolatus (Red Empress)

P saulosi (nice colours and stay relatively small compared to other species)

There are too many other great fish to provide details of in recommendations.

The secret to keeping these fish is to have a good number of each species,m. This will keep aggression to a minimum. Everybody will have different ideas on what works well together, and appropriate numbers of fish per tank (under stocked/over stocked).

Also remember that your tank will have to be cycled (there are many ways to do this and takes around 4 weeks to fully cycle). And the more fish you keep in your tank, the more water changes are required.

Happy fish keeping!

[Mpfprocess]

Peacocks and yellow labs will go well together, but stick to one type of peacock only unless you just want to display males (they will cross breed if u keep different varieties).

Thanks for the reply!

Is there any reason not to go with just males for the peacocks so I could get a few different ones? I really liked some of your suggestions, they look amazing so I went on Aqadvisor and put in my tank details and came up with this list:

5 x Yellow Lab (Labidochromis caeruleus)

2 x Blue Dolphin (Cyrtocara moorii)

2 x Placidochromis electra (Placidochromis electra)

2 x Red Empress (Protomelas Taeniolatus)

5 x Pseudotropheus Saulosi (Pseudotropheus Saulosi)

5 x Labidochromis chisumulae (Labidochromis chisumulae)

2 x Red Peacock (Aulonocara hansbaenschi)

2 x Butterfly Peacock (Aulonocara jacobfreibergi)

Aqadvisor does give me a lot of errors about mixing Mbuna species though and says a lot cannot go together? Is it just being over sensitive? Pasted in quote box below:

Recommendations/Warnings/Suggestions/Notes:

Suggestion: If you want to keep more than 5 Yellow Lab, minimum recommend male to female ratio is 1:4 (M:F). You will be less likely to experience problem if you get even more females.

Suggestion: If you want to keep more than 5 Pseudotropheus Saulosi, minimum recommend male to female ratio is 1:4 (M:F). You will be less likely to experience problem if you get even more females.

Suggestion: If you want to keep more than 5 Labidochromis chisumulae, minimum recommend male to female ratio is 1:4 (M:F). You will be less likely to experience problem if you get even more females.

Warning: Yellow Lab is not recommended to be with Blue Dolphin - mbuna species should not be mixed with other groups.

Warning: Yellow Lab is not recommended to be with Placidochromis electra - mbuna species should not be mixed with other groups.

Warning: Yellow Lab is not recommended to be with Red Empress - mbuna species should not be mixed with other groups.

Warning: Yellow Lab is not recommended to be with Red Peacock - mbuna species should not be mixed with other groups.

Warning: Yellow Lab is not recommended to be with Butterfly Peacock - mbuna species should not be mixed with other groups.

Warning: At least 5 x Blue Dolphin are recommended in a group.

Warning: Blue Dolphin is not recommended to be with Pseudotropheus Saulosi - lake Malawi species should not be mixed with other groups including mbuna species.

Warning: Blue Dolphin is not recommended to be with Labidochromis chisumulae - lake Malawi species should not be mixed with other groups including mbuna species.

Warning: Placidochromis electra is not recommended to be with Pseudotropheus Saulosi - lake Malawi species should not be mixed with other groups including mbuna species.

Warning: Placidochromis electra is not recommended to be with Labidochromis chisumulae - lake Malawi species should not be mixed with other groups including mbuna species.

Warning: Red Empress is not recommended to be with Pseudotropheus Saulosi - lake Malawi species should not be mixed with other groups including mbuna species.

Warning: Red Empress is not recommended to be with Labidochromis chisumulae - lake Malawi species should not be mixed with other groups including mbuna species.

Warning: Pseudotropheus Saulosi is not recommended to be with Red Peacock - mbuna species should not be mixed with other groups.

Warning: Pseudotropheus Saulosi is not recommended to be with Butterfly Peacock - mbuna species should not be mixed with other groups.

Warning: Labidochromis chisumulae is not recommended to be with Red Peacock - mbuna species should not be mixed with other groups.

Warning: Labidochromis chisumulae is not recommended to be with Butterfly Peacock - mbuna species should not be mixed with other groups.

Warning: At least 5 x Red Peacock are recommended in a group.

Warning: At least 5 x Butterfly Peacock are recommended in a group.

Note: You have selected mbuna species. These species in general, need to be overstocked to control aggression (over 100% stocking level). Make sure your filtration is sufficient and keep up with water changes. (Read more about beginner mbuna species here).

Recommended temperature range: 25 - 27 C. [Display in Farenheit]

Recommended pH range: 7.6 - 9.

Recommended hardness range: 10 - 30 dH.

You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 411%.

Recommended water change schedule: 39% per week.

Your aquarium stocking level is 125%.

Thanks,

Matt

[bluetang]

I have personally kept mixes of the cichlids I recommend, so in my experience the results you got from aquadvisor is rubbish. I would however, recommend you keep a minimum of 5 of each species you keep. They might be fine in lower numbers, but you risk aggression if you only have a couple of a particular species.

only males for peacocks generally are ok, but again, keep a minimum of 5 peacocks. Differing sub-genus shouldn't matter generally, but you may find that some do better than others.

[maxib]

Hey. I'm no expert, not even a serious hobbyist. Only been keeping cichlids nine months or so. 

Dont worry so much about advisors etc. I've got a totally mismatched bunch of fish that couldn't be happier..

2 Acei Tanzania

2 Flameback 

4 Maingano

4 Saulosi

2 Dragonblood Peacock

2 iceburg blue

2 Hongi Red Top ( most aggressive fish in my tank)

I feed small amounts twice a day. Have dragon blood fry and maingano fry surviving in main tank quite well. Very little aggression and no cross breeding so far ( will probably happen eventually though). I haven't worried about m:f ratios too much. 

Go with what floats your boat, what you like. It's going to be in your living room. I was told adamantly not to mix some of these fish. I ignored the advice and haven't experienced any of the problems I was told I would. 

What fails for some people succeeds for others....plus I spank my fish if their naughty....( not). Just enjoy.

[tootie]

I had a standard 4ft tank when I started out many years ago - can't remember the exact number of fish I had with each species but definitely at least 5 of one

The fish consisted of: Tanzania Aceii; mbamba; yellows; peacocks (ngara flametail

i grew them all up as fry. There were never any issues from this mix. The tank looked great with the different colours. The good thing was that female yellows, Aceii and mbamba are all colourful like the males.

good luck with whatever you choose.

it may be useful to check out the photograph forum on this site to see what people have in there tanks.

 

[Chuckmeister]

If you have any plans on breeding then I'd recommend having no more than a 2 species tank. You need to choose your fish carefully. for example putting an open water hap like a Dimidiochromis compressicep with an mbuna or choosing a fish that has stripes and the other fish has spots. If cross breeding occurs then its easier to tell.

otherwise if its just a display tank then choose what you like assuming that it suits your tank size and stick with your specific...ie malawi if you choose malawi etc

If you have a community malawi tank and your fish are breeding then I'd recommend that anything bred stays in the tank. Handballing cross bred fish to a fish shop is not really doing the hobby any justice. the shop buys the fish for a couple of bucks, put a label on it as best they can and sell as a profit.

If you are after a display tank then your better off buying male fish as you come across them. It saves you money and drama with the x-breeding thing and generally you'll end up with a nicer tank than throwing in random amounts of fish...ie putting in 5 of this and 2 of that.. You can do it that way though but you'll get fish breeding and you'll need to be certain whats bred.

Basically if you put many fish in a tank and they breed and as long as they dont come out then its fine. If you wanna breed then choose your fish carefully and inspect every fish that has spawned for signs of x-breeding. Otherwise let the fish spit in the tank and allow them to be fed off. You'll get a few that survive but they'll end up as new homies that will retire in your tank.

'

[maxib]

It's surprising how fast the population grows. Cichlids breed like crazy. In a display tank full of rocks it's really hard to catch a fish. What a pain stripping the tank down to catch unwanted or surplus fish. In some ways I wish I had stuck to males but seeing fry was interesting but it's wearing off as I have too many fish for my setup now.

[Buccal]

If you incorporate a little super G in their diet, your fry will stop generating.

[z18turbo]

All said above is good advice.  I have never seen Aqadvisor and never will again, very inaccurate generalizations. I now tend to buy small groups of fry from breeders and keep males I want in my display and females in separate tanks to turn into colony's, or move them on. I would add be prepared for aggression and the need to swap out fish that are to aggressive until you get a good balance. Also research species profiles so you have an idea what you are getting but remember fish have personality's so again be prepared to re-home fish that don't work out. Good luck with the tank.