Returning member

[dbailey]

Hi all,

I'm a long-time-past member of OVAS.  I was actually on the board; I guess it was back in the mid 90s.  I haven't been active in the club for quite some time, but I've been keeping a large stable african cichlid tank for the last 15 years.

I live out in the far west of Kanata, and get my water from a well.  As a result, it's very hard and quite alkaline (pH 8.2).  The cichlids love it, and do quite well in this water.  There are probably 50 fish in the tank, and only 2 of them were purchased -- all the rest were hatched and raised in this community tank.  What's the lifespan of a typical african?

But...  I'm getting a bit bored with this tank and african cichlids in general.  So I'm hoping to draw on the experience of the club members in finding a good alternative.  I'll post a separate thread in the freshwater forum to discuss this.

[sanny]

Welcome back to OVAS! What kind of African cichlids are you keeping? Malawi cichlids live about 4 to 10 years in my experience, but water quality plays a huge role of how long the cichlid will live.

[dbailey]

Currently I'm keeping a couple of different mbuna species.  Water quality seems to appeal to them since they've been breeding in the tank pretty much since day 1.  One of the few advantages of the high hardness/high pH well water.