30g set up, any possibilities?

[jcarr71]

Within the next couple months our community tank, which currently resides in a 30g, is going to upgrade to at least a 55g. That will leave an empty 30g. I really want a Malawi cichild family. Are there any species where a pair or two could live in something as small as a 30g comfortably? If not, what about American or other African cichlids?

My ideal tank would have two different species, four fish, one male and female each. Is this possible at all?

[Lab_Rat]

You could do a shellie colony with a tank that size. They're from Lake Tanganykia though, not Malawi. Why not make the 55g into a malawi mbuna tank. That is a great size footprint for them and you can overstock for aggression. A 30g (with a 36" footprint) is really too small for anything but the mildest malawi fish (yellow labs are the only ones I can think that might work).

[Red]

Yellow labs get to big and not enough territory in a 30gal. I would just got with shellies with some small calvus on the top of the tank.

[rangur1]

in a 30gal you would be limited to shell dwelling cichlids [ shellies] from lake tanganyicka , possibly ONE pair of julies , also from tanganyika. or you could try south american dwarf cichlids --bolivian rams,apistogrammas.
you might be able to combine a pair of each of these.

[rhonin]

I have a 30gl plus stand I setup for a pair of German Peacocks.
They are at 3.5" at the moment (male - female at 3) and provide a very colorful sight (plus a 3" avacado pleco).

The tank is setup specifically for these.

For general mbuna - I would try something else. 30 is a bit small for them.