After reading MrHappy's response, I have little to add. I do disagree
with the overstocking of Mbuna tanks to control aggression. Effective? Yes.
Popular? Yep. Does it work? Seems to work just fine, although there's
sometimes an occassional death or two. But IMO, it's nicer to have a more
natural looking tank where the tank size will accomodate the fish you're
keeping. If your tank is large enough, you won't need to overstock to
control aggression. Over the years, I've gotten away from the overstocking
practice and moved towards more natural looking tanks. I don't know if my
fish are any happier or not, I'm sure there's a thousand arguments on why
overstocking is better, "My fish breed." "I've been doing it this way five
hundred years and never had a fish die.", etc, etc. But, by not
overstocking, you can stick with water changes once a week instead of every
three days, (which overstockers seldom do.) Broods I've gotten from my tanks
have increased since I stopped overstocking and fry seem to be healthier.
I agree fully with every thing else MrHappy has written, especially with
his suggestions being unpopular. =) Seems no one wants to hear good advice
when they've already gotten something else into their heads.
Tim
http://www.fishaholics.org

"MrHappy" noemail@thankyou wrote in message
...

I will make an unpopular suggestion....you might want to
consider getting cichlids that match the water you have. It will
be a lot easier than trying to keep the PH up as it will have a
natural tendency to drop

Other suggestions if you want malawis

Do not mix predators and prey
Mbuna, the rock dwellers, are mainly herbivore, and want a lot
of rock face and caves.....other Malawi cichlids want open water
and are not as violent as Mbuna. They tend not to mix
If you get tank bred from your area, they hmay be used to more
acid water..ask at your LFS. Buy wild caught and you will be
storing up trouble
melanochromis Auratus is a violent fish. I would recommend
against

Chose Mbuna in groups of 2-3 females to a male and ensure that
different family groups have different markings/body shapes
as these are the things that seem to start the wars off

I suggest you quarantine new introductions

The main problem with new introductions is that they are
introduced in to tanks where all the availble territories have
already been claimed. It is worth moving the decor around to
break up the territories which will reduce the fighting when new
introductions are put in (the existing fish will have no settled
territory to defend)

If you are buying fish prior to putting in to your display tank,
I suggest holding them like they do in the LFS ie in completely
bare tanks with no decor as they can't mark out territories
easily

Overstock +50% and so overfilter the tank as it makes it
difficult for territories to be established and, lots of fish
spreads around the aggression

Try and build some rock outcrops that break the line of sight
down the length of the tank

If you want to provide short term refuges I use lengths of
3/4" pipe stacked in pyramids to give hiding spaces

One final thing, if you move filter media in to water with a
very different PH, (don't forget it is a logarithmic scale so
PH5 going to PH 6 is a 10 fold reduction in acidity), the
bacteria will die back and will need a chance to stabilise and
grow back

better to seed the filters as best you can and then fishless
cycle the tank in the right water.

With local tank bread Mbuna, used to you tap water, success will
be greater IMHO as you will be able to maintain the water in a
constant manner

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