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.