Cichlid tank advice

[Turn7]

I've wanted to set up a cichlid tank for a few years now, and my current freshwater setup is need of a refresh,which has got me thinking about Cichlids once more.

I researched it a fair bit last time,and decided that I liked the idea of Peacocks.

Tanks is a 210 litre with play sand substrate and two large Eheims.

Be interested to hear any thoughts on how to go about a new Cichlid community.

What stopped me before,was I never seemed to get the same answer twice regarding stocking etc,and I don't have the faciltiy for seperation tanks.

Look forward to your views.

Edited by Turn7 on Tuesday 9th October 20:06

[S6 Devil]

Peacocks are from lake Malawi so can be kept with any other Malawi Cichlids. I have two tanks of them and find them very easy to keep.

They are territorial so are best kept in a highly populated tank to stop this behaviour...to some extent. I have a large pleco and two spotted catfish in mine as well as a blue botia loach. Tank mates need to be hardy as Cichlids will have a go and tear fins.

They like hard water so need plenty of rockwork. I use ocean rock which is readily available. You can often pick it up second hand on ebay.

Of all the fish I have kept they are the most colourful and only a step away from a marine set up. Marines are for me, too much work and expense. I'll be sticking to Malawi's.

Good luck, it's well worth changing to this set up!

Edited by S6 Devil on Wednesday 10th October 00:42

[otolith]

Are you thinking of converting an existing tank with mature filter media? Not a bad situation to be in, given the "all at once" stocking policy often used to contain aggression with rift valley cichlids.

[Turn7]

Yep,mature tankjust want to re scale it and add new livestock.

[y2blade]

I did the same as you about 5 or 6 weeks ago...I converted my Tropical community tank to house Malawi Cichlids.


Fantastic fish, lovely looking and very full of character...can (and do) just sit and watch them for ages.
My current stock is
6 yellow labs
6 Rusties
6 Blue Johanni
2 Bristlenose plecs.

A little video.
http://youtu.be/fy0DmBeN6JA

Took these pics today.







Edit: to add the little Video.

Edited by y2blade on Saturday 20th October 17:36

[Turn7]

Was just looking at your pics on the tank thread Y2.

Im definitley going ahead, found a good forum and a Cich specialist breeder here :

http://www.lakemalawicichlids.co.uk/phpBB3/index.p...

http://www.tonysafricancichlids.co.uk/

Going to run with some Mbunas in my current set up for a while, as I want to upgrade to a bigger 60x24x18 tank next year all being well.

[y2blade]

Turn7 said:

Was just looking at your pics on the tank thread Y2.

Im definitley going ahead, found a good forum and a Cich specialist breeder here :

http://www.lakemalawicichlids.co.uk/phpBB3/index.p...

http://www.tonysafricancichlids.co.uk/

Going to run with some Mbunas in my current set up for a while, as I want to upgrade to a bigger 60x24x18 tank next year all being well.

PM'd you

[Turn7]

y2blade said:

Turn7 said:

Was just looking at your pics on the tank thread Y2.

Im definitley going ahead, found a good forum and a Cich specialist breeder here :

http://www.lakemalawicichlids.co.uk/phpBB3/index.p...

http://www.tonysafricancichlids.co.uk/

Going to run with some Mbunas in my current set up for a while, as I want to upgrade to a bigger 60x24x18 tank next year all being well.

PM'd you

Recieved - cheers Chris.