Help with fish selection for african tank.

[Paul]

Hi folks, if any of you remember, I have been setting up a 100g, 4' tank for
africans for some time.
so now I have 5 1- 1 1/2 inch gold fish swimming around in there (no offence
to gold fish lovers, but man, they are brainless little creatures!) cycling
my tank. soon I will be adding my african cichlids and I have been
researching every night on the net for compatible species etc.
Unfortunately I find the info on alot of sites is quite contradictory. Some
sites say electric blue haps are open water swimmers while some say rock
dwellers etc.

SO seeing as I trust alot of you guys, maybe you can help??

so.. I have a 4'x2'x2' tank. I have a pile of rocks that extends half way
up the height of the tank and about half way to towards the front of the
tank. so that is about a quater of the total tank space is full of caves and
crevices. I intend on getting a few more rocks as I have read that most
mbuna/ haps will stay pretty close to the rocks.

I really want to get some species from malawi that will readily swim around
in the open water.

At the moment I am thinking of getting the following fish (each species a
breeding group of 1-2 male and 3-5 females):

Electric blue haps
" yellow haps
Red empresses
a species of peacock
maybe blue dolphins..

I have basically chosen these fish for their color, the information on their
personality and habits was very inconsistant.

will any of these fish swim in open water?
do the females of these species display good color?
will I get some interesting habits/personality out of these fish?

what else would you recommend if the answer is no?

[RedForeman ©®]

Peacocks are very colorful, very social, but sometimes relentless in their
aggression... it seems that if you have only males, you'll not have as much,
but when and if you throw a female in the mix, it'll get somewhat dicey for
a while, while the males fight it out to see who gets to be with her...
Controlled aggression by over population is a thought, but that totally
depends on how much attention or time yoiu want to put into it to decide
which breeds do better with others... IME, I've had peacocks with mbuna and
never had any trouble out of peacocks, except for an mbuna Ps. Socoffoli,
that one was a bear.... it did alot of damage to several peacocks, very
territorial, and not very social... came out ONLY to chase and eat....

good luck...
"Paul" > wrote in message
...
> Hi folks, if any of you remember, I have been setting up a 100g, 4' tank
for
> africans for some time.
> so now I have 5 1- 1 1/2 inch gold fish swimming around in there (no
offence
> to gold fish lovers, but man, they are brainless little creatures!)
cycling
> my tank. soon I will be adding my african cichlids and I have been
> researching every night on the net for compatible species etc.
> Unfortunately I find the info on alot of sites is quite contradictory.
Some
> sites say electric blue haps are open water swimmers while some say rock
> dwellers etc.
>
> SO seeing as I trust alot of you guys, maybe you can help??
>
> so.. I have a 4'x2'x2' tank. I have a pile of rocks that extends half way
> up the height of the tank and about half way to towards the front of the
> tank. so that is about a quater of the total tank space is full of caves
and
> crevices. I intend on getting a few more rocks as I have read that most
> mbuna/ haps will stay pretty close to the rocks.
>
> I really want to get some species from malawi that will readily swim
around
> in the open water.
>
> At the moment I am thinking of getting the following fish (each species a
> breeding group of 1-2 male and 3-5 females):
>
> Electric blue haps
> " yellow haps
> Red empresses
> a species of peacock
> maybe blue dolphins..
>
> I have basically chosen these fish for their color, the information on
their
> personality and habits was very inconsistant.
>
> will any of these fish swim in open water?
> do the females of these species display good color?
> will I get some interesting habits/personality out of these fish?
>
> what else would you recommend if the answer is no?
>
>
>
>

[Mark]

You will find that most of the Malawi Haplochromine females are rather
drab in color. And, of all the Malawi cichlids I've had, none of them
were too shy to swim around in the open unless they were being
harassed by the other fish. The Malawi's will normally stay close to
rocks but that is a relative term. They normally do not spend all
their time hiding amongst them. All of the fish you listed will be
visible and swimming around in the open most of the time.

In tanks where I would have males and females of different genus and
species I would leave one end of the tank fairly open with maybe one
or two large rocks that the fish could dig under. It worked good as a
community spawning site for both the Haps and Mbuna. With the
spawning site on one end of the tank, the other fish could get as far
away from the aggressive male as possible. Once the spawing was
complete, another species would take the spot over.

By your description of the rockwork, I am invisioning a wall along the
back of your tank. If that is the case, it may prove to be useless in
keeping the fish from kicking the hell out of their tankmates. I find
that islands of rocks work better, but that is just my experience.
Caves will normally be used for spawning only and most Malawi's will
want to dig their own under a rock or something. Tunnels, escape
routes, shear distance, and possibly a bit of crowding are about the
only things that will reduce aggression on a particular fish.
Out-if-Site / Out-of-Mind is the key, and a cave is more of a trap
than a refuge.

I hope this helps,

Mark
http://www.cichliddomain.com


"Paul" > wrote in message
...
> Hi folks, if any of you remember, I have been setting up a 100g, 4'
tank for
> africans for some time.
> so now I have 5 1- 1 1/2 inch gold fish swimming around in there (no
offence
> to gold fish lovers, but man, they are brainless little creatures!)
cycling
> my tank. soon I will be adding my african cichlids and I have been
> researching every night on the net for compatible species etc.
> Unfortunately I find the info on alot of sites is quite
contradictory. Some
> sites say electric blue haps are open water swimmers while some say
rock
> dwellers etc.
>
> SO seeing as I trust alot of you guys, maybe you can help??
>
> so.. I have a 4'x2'x2' tank. I have a pile of rocks that extends
half way
> up the height of the tank and about half way to towards the front of
the
> tank. so that is about a quater of the total tank space is full of
caves and
> crevices. I intend on getting a few more rocks as I have read that
most
> mbuna/ haps will stay pretty close to the rocks.
>
> I really want to get some species from malawi that will readily swim
around
> in the open water.
>
> At the moment I am thinking of getting the following fish (each
species a
> breeding group of 1-2 male and 3-5 females):
>
> Electric blue haps
> " yellow haps
> Red empresses
> a species of peacock
> maybe blue dolphins..
>
> I have basically chosen these fish for their color, the information
on their
> personality and habits was very inconsistant.
>
> will any of these fish swim in open water?
> do the females of these species display good color?
> will I get some interesting habits/personality out of these fish?
>
> what else would you recommend if the answer is no?
>
>
>
>

[Seweryn]

Depends if you want a tank with just one lake represented, or mixed. In my
experience, I have found the Tanganyikans to be generally less brightly
coloured, but had more personality. So I guess it's what you are going for.

- Seweryn

"Paul" > wrote in message
...
> Hi folks, if any of you remember, I have been setting up a 100g, 4' tank
for
> africans for some time.
> so now I have 5 1- 1 1/2 inch gold fish swimming around in there (no
offence
> to gold fish lovers, but man, they are brainless little creatures!)
cycling
> my tank. soon I will be adding my african cichlids and I have been
> researching every night on the net for compatible species etc.
> Unfortunately I find the info on alot of sites is quite contradictory.
Some
> sites say electric blue haps are open water swimmers while some say rock
> dwellers etc.
>
> SO seeing as I trust alot of you guys, maybe you can help??
>
> so.. I have a 4'x2'x2' tank. I have a pile of rocks that extends half way
> up the height of the tank and about half way to towards the front of the
> tank. so that is about a quater of the total tank space is full of caves
and
> crevices. I intend on getting a few more rocks as I have read that most
> mbuna/ haps will stay pretty close to the rocks.
>
> I really want to get some species from malawi that will readily swim
around
> in the open water.
>
> At the moment I am thinking of getting the following fish (each species a
> breeding group of 1-2 male and 3-5 females):
>
> Electric blue haps
> " yellow haps
> Red empresses
> a species of peacock
> maybe blue dolphins..
>
> I have basically chosen these fish for their color, the information on
their
> personality and habits was very inconsistant.
>
> will any of these fish swim in open water?
> do the females of these species display good color?
> will I get some interesting habits/personality out of these fish?
>
> what else would you recommend if the answer is no?
>
>
>
>

[Paul]

Mark wrote in message >...
>You will find that most of the Malawi Haplochromine females are rather
>drab in color. And, of all the Malawi cichlids I've had, none of them
>were too shy to swim around in the open unless they were being
>harassed by the other fish. The Malawi's will normally stay close to
>rocks but that is a relative term. They normally do not spend all
>their time hiding amongst them. All of the fish you listed will be
>visible and swimming around in the open most of the time.
>
>In tanks where I would have males and females of different genus and
>species I would leave one end of the tank fairly open with maybe one
>or two large rocks that the fish could dig under. It worked good as a
>community spawning site for both the Haps and Mbuna. With the
>spawning site on one end of the tank, the other fish could get as far
>away from the aggressive male as possible. Once the spawing was
>complete, another species would take the spot over.
>
>By your description of the rockwork, I am invisioning a wall along the
>back of your tank. If that is the case, it may prove to be useless in
>keeping the fish from kicking the hell out of their tankmates. I find
>that islands of rocks work better, but that is just my experience.
>Caves will normally be used for spawning only and most Malawi's will
>want to dig their own under a rock or something. Tunnels, escape
>routes, shear distance, and possibly a bit of crowding are about the
>only things that will reduce aggression on a particular fish.
>Out-if-Site / Out-of-Mind is the key, and a cave is more of a trap
>than a refuge.


hmmm, I've put styrofoam under all my rocks to stop them from undermining
them, I will have to get some sturdy rocks that I can allow them to dig
under..

the caves are all open ended anyway, they don't back right onto the back
wall.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

[Mephistopheles]

"Paul" > wrote in
:

>
> At the moment I am thinking of getting the following fish (each
> species a breeding group of 1-2 male and 3-5 females):
>
> Electric blue haps

If you are referring to Sciaenochromis fryeri, these are definitely
more open water fish and will not hide among the rocks. They do
not need rock caves and will do just fine with a few rocks
scattered on the bottom of the tank. They are prodigious fry
predators, however, so if you are serious about breeding the other
fish, you may want to omit these.

> " yellow haps

I have never heard of an "electric yellow hap". The mbuna,
Labidochromis caeruleus, or yellow lab, is sometimes referred to as
an electric yellow, this must be what you are referring to. These
are rock dwelling fish, but they should swim in the open as well.
They seem to be one of the few mbuna that coexist fairly peacefully
with haps.

> Red empresses

These are unusual haps in that they are algae grazers, like mbuna.
But they swim mainly in the open, but rocks will be good so they
will have something to graze on.

> a species of peacock

In the lake, these fish exist in the intermediate zone between
rocks and sand.

> maybe blue dolphins..

These are more open water fish that exist in the sandy areas. No
big rock structures are needed.

>
> I have basically chosen these fish for their color, the
> information on their personality and habits was very
> inconsistant.

I think you have made a very good selection. I currently have all
these fish coexisting in my 180 gallon tank. You will probably
want to have a mixture of open areas and rock structures so the
fish will have a variety of habitat to choose from.

>
> will any of these fish swim in open water?

All should to some extent.

> do the females of these species display good color?

Males and females of the yellow labs and blue dolphins look very
similar. Females of the other species you mention are mostly drab,
but seeing the beautiful males in breeding dress more than makes up
for this, in my opinion.

> will I get some interesting habits/personality out of these
> fish?

Malawi cichlids are fairly interesting, but I would consider South
American cichlids, Tanganyikan cichlids, and perhaps even Central
American cichlids to be more captivating personality wise. The
strong point of Malawi cichlids is their bright colors.

Cheers,
Meph

[Paul]

Hi, thanks for the great info! -

electric blues - so if you are serious about breeding the other
>fish, you may want to omit these.

Hi, thanks for the great info! - that's a shame about the e.b's eating fry.
I wanted some blues but don't think I have the resources to invest in a fry
tank, I thought I would take my chances and see if any survive in the main
tank... so no e.b's