Hope I am setting up my Lake Malawi cichlid tank right????

[zippity]

Guys:
         I got the names of the two species I am gonna put in my 29 gal. finally. I am putting in 2-3 of each blue zebras and auratus, hope i spelled that right. These fish will get along right? I have a few rocks on the left side, open space galore in middle, temperature at 80 degrees F, gonna check out my PH in a few days, got a tiger barb and cory cycling it now although i am afraid of the high temp on them when i put them back into the colder water. Substrate although is the larger stones, no money for all the crushed corals. Is there anythign I am missing or forgetting?
Thanks

[Mettle]

I would personally drop the temp a few degrees. Lower temp equals milder temperments which in the ends means less aggressiveness.

Auratus, in my opinion, get too big for your size of tank. So I wouldn't personally house them in there permanently. But that's just me.

And if I'm not mistaken aren't zebras really aggressive? And crazy?

I might go with something like yellow labs, personally... But that's just me.

[kennyman]

Would those fish be :  http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=787 ? and http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=750 ?

I think if you try have breeding colonies of both types in a small tank like that you will find it rough going after about three or four months. Just my opinion though.

Have you looked at some of the smaller dogtooth cichlids? http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1675 These guys look great and stay smaller. You might even be able to squeeze 4 or 5 in a 30g ;P

[darkdep]

All these suggestions are IMHO:

Drop the temp to about 78.  80 is ok, but higher temps cause dissolved oxygen to be lower in the water and honestly, it's not necessary to have the temp this high.

Auratus?  Wouldn't go there myself, not as a new cichlid owner.  They are way too aggressive, especially against each other.  If you end up with two males in a tank that size, you won't have one for long.

The zebras are a good choice IMHO (I have lots of zebras, and am a big fan of them), I would also second Mettle's suggestion of Yellow Labs (also known as Labidochromis caeruleus, but everyone knows them as Yellow Labs).  The Zebras are classed as "mildly aggressive" but they won't bother the peaceful Labs because of the very different colouration.  I have a 30gal with 3 large Zebras and 2 large labs, and they get along great.  

BTW, it's ok to slightly "overload" a Malawi tank; not only are many of the fish from lake Malawi "used" to being in crowded conditions, it actually helps if you're experiencing high aggression...more fish = more difficulty for any fish to establish a territory.

You're gonna hate me for this, but I would not go with larger stones for a substrate...Africans in general are pretty messy.  You do NOT need the crushed coral...anything will do.

For pH, you want it to be on the high side but don't fight with it.  If your tap water is 7.6-7.8, then just go straight to start.  Once you're comfortable with it you can make the water conditions more like the real lake by adding Baking Soda and Epsom Salts to simulate Malawi's hard, high pH water.

And Mettle:  Zebra's ARE crazy.  But mostly with each other.  If you end up with a good dominant Male you'll at first hate him for being so mean to the others, then you'll love him for how cool he is.

[Mettle]

Have you looked at some of the smaller dogtooth cichlids? http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1675 These guys look great and stay smaller. You might even be able to squeeze 4 or 5 in a 30g ;P

Wow! Those look fantastic. And good size!

Does anyone here on OVAS keep/breed those?

[darkdep]

BTW, the Cynotilapia Afra that kennyman suggested is also a great fish.  I've got a few in my 90 and they're actually some of my faves.

I would also suggest as possibilities:

Yellow Tail Acei - http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=1460

Socolofi - http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profiles/species.php?id=919

[darkdep]

Mettle:  I've been thinking about breeding these...the colours are amazing.

[zippity]

Well again a large chain store said it would be awesome to have auratus and zebras together, but trust me I do take the words of all you guys on here more seriously. I really do love the look of the blue zebras, I wouldnt mind reds if anyone knows where to get them, and I did love the look and the size of the dogtooth too. What would be the best substrate for me to put down for these guys? And I have also turned down the temperature, my tiger barb is thanking me i think, lol. When it comes to tetras or other species I am doing real well, but having MTS like everyone on OVAS i am trying to learn and enjoy more different species again all by trial and error but hoping not too costly as I do have 3 kids to feed. Good thing my wife loves me and good thing she loves all these tanks surrounding our dinner table, very peaceful and therapeutic. I am takign everything you guys said and continue to figure the right combination for my tank, so any more advice woudl be great.

[Mettle]

It just takes walking into the right big chain store and talking to the right person. I work at Super Pet in Barrhaven and I would've told you exactly what I said on here. And also that I'm no expert on Africans and only going on what I've read and what I've heard has worked for people.

Darkdep - What do you mean thinking? Get on with it already!  :lol:

Every day that I'm on these forums and every day that I'm at work I get one step closer to having an African tank. :?

[kennyman]

hehe yea we ned to keep our passions in perspective. If I tried to have all those tanks like I saw at Dearkdep's place my honey would go bonkers for sure. I promised only one each, F/W  B/W S/W

I went cheep on the substrate with my mbuna tank using sable coloured playsand and mixed in some shell to spice it up. The shell also does the ph and buffer thing natualy so I dont have to mess around. I keep a stable ph of 8.2 for six months now. It cost about $5 for a bag of sand bigger than you need. but the shell is more. The thing with sand is it keeps all the poop up top so you can easly vac it up. However it is a bit silty for some time. The $20 for a good baged cichlid substrate is worth it in the long run.

For stocking I started with a mixed species, overstocked tank to limit aggression but it didnt feel right to me. I now have a species only tank that has three ages of fish due to fry surviving and growing up in the main tank. I'm happier with a species only tank, but its a personal  kind of thing. I tried to bioscape my setup looking at underwater pictures of L.Malawi and learning about where exactly in the lake my fish hangs out.

Myself I would recomend  just one family of something like the dogtooth, 1M / 3-FM and a syno for extra clean-up. I find the entertainment comes from watching a few fish closely rather than sevral in close quarters. But thats just me.

[darkdep]

Mettle:  I just realized my avatar is one of my Afra's.    Yes, I will get on with it...I haven't had a fry batch in a while.

African tanks are fantastic...I'm really enjoying my new planted tank setup, but there is something different about the African fish...You know how some fish recognise you and come to the top of the tank looking for food?  Well, I know this is gonna sound weird, but my africans actually look excited when I come near...not in a mindless "human means food" kinda way, but in a fast breathing, happy, puppy kinda way.  My big yellow Baenshi let me PET HIM tonight.  Africans rock.

Substrate...The "ideal" substrate is something like crushed coral, simply because it leaches minerals into the water.  But, you can go many other ways.  Fine substrates work better for sure, for the reason Kenny mentioned (poop on the top).  Most of my African tanks use a combo of black sand and/or fine black gravel.  I also have a tank with 1/2 common green aquarium gravel and 1/2 crushed coral.  

Playsand is totally acceptable.  Only issue there is it comes pretty dirty, and takes a LONG time to clean...too much trouble for me personally (I hate cleaning substrate), but lots of people do it and you can't beat the price!  A lot of other people use Pool Filter sand as well, which you can get a place like Mermaid Pools...it's a lot cleaner and is still pretty dirt cheap.

[jaracas]

just to add my 2¢

some good fish choices given.

IMO the problem you might probably face is a mini-cycle when you add the new fish.
The problem with using fish to cycle is that only enough nitrifying bacteria grow to utilise the amount of ammonia being produced and in turn the nitrites being produced. Hence if you replace the fish with larger and more fish your bacterialogical filter is going to struggle for some time and i wouldn't be surprised at some losses.
Again IMO, a better bet would have been to do a fishless cycle with ammonia which would have meant that in a much shorter time you could have added almost, if not all the total population of fish, no waste no fuss.

when you remove your 'cycling' fish you should be ok if you bag them and let them acclimatise just as you would if brining them in from a pet store

[darkdep]

As long as you add slowly, you should be fine though.  Africans are pretty tough fish. I've never had any losses due to a mini cycle.

[damarech]

Lower temp to 76
More rocks for hiding places
Larger tank ,six cichlids will sone out grow a 30 gal
Something like this pic

[gvv]

Crushed coral nice substarte, as it is perfect to support stable hardness and pH. Even the tap water is about 7.6-8 pH is is very soft and pH will drop fast. The problem with crushed corral - white color. Somebody may not like it. Personnaly I used it and was happy with it -not so coarse, not so fine, malawis loved to dig it. But I got it when it was on sale in BA maybe 2 years ago for cheap.
If you will go with other substarte just use the artw's method: add baking soda and epsom salt to get desired hardness and pH.
BTW, I personnaly will not go with M.Auratus unless they are your favorite fish in the tanks less than 50G. I bred them long time ago and love them but they are nasty and will kill if they decide so...
There are also some "Cookie Cutter Setups" on the cichlid-forum site, but I don't think they can suggest something interesting for 29G there:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/quick_reference_list.php

Regards