which ones first?

[ashm5]

I'm planing on setting up a malawi cichlid aquarium in a 240L tank, I've been told labidochromis are the best to start off with how many should I get? I was planning on about six at first don't no if thats too little or too much?

[sergo]

is 240l = to 55 gal? if so i would do 2 females since the males and females look the same (yellow labs). are you looking to do a species tank or a mixed species tank? the rusty is supposed to be some dosile too and they look real neat when they get to adult age. what are YOU really wanting to do?

[ashm5]

I found two nice labidochromis, they aren't the electric yellows, a kimpuma and a hongi red top (see pictures) I was going to get 3 each of those to start with, was planning on buying them from a site as the only place over here I've seen them is "pets at home" and I don't like buying fish from there (too many dead ones) so I will put in a request that they send 1 male and 2 females of each, thats all I want for now but eventually I want to get a yellow tail acei (as suggested by jessie also) and theres another picture of that one too not sure how many of them to get but if six is enough to start then I will think about that one another time

[sergo]

if you put 6 of one species in your tank you will only end up with 2 species in your tank (assuming a 240l tank = 55gal). what are you wanting to do? a species tank or multiple species tank? as to what to start with, i'd say the ones that have the rep for being the most dosile. allow them some time to grow in their environment and then add the ones that are more aggressive as juveniles. you must do research and lots of it. a lot of these fish have very similar color patterns, different attitudes and are even called different things so it is imperative to read up on them or you'll get very confused when go to your fish store to buy them. did that help?

[ashm5]

umm... i'm not sure but yeah 240L is 55gal how many fish do you think I'll be able to have, I don't mind what species they are as long as they look nice and will get along together, apparently lab's are the most docile which is why i suggested them, by species do you mean like jsut lab's? becuase theres cichlids as a general species or theres mbuna's a cichlid species or theres lab's as a type of mbuna and then theres different types of labs, so I don't know what you mean by species (if you know what I mean) I would like to have different types but I wouldn't mind just having the ones I mentioned below

[sergo]

we'll say that mbuna would be a species and they are broken up into subspecies. if you want to do mbuna then do what falls in the mbuna catagory. labs are type of mbuna. take some time and familiarize yourself with the mbuna species.
i am not an expert here so don't take my word as gospel. i've just done a lot of research.

[ashm5]

Ok was planning on doing mbuna getting my new tank sumtym this week so I'll be able 2 start setting up my cichlid one with rocks and caves I Think I'll ask at my LFS the one I go to does have one person in there who knows what she's talking about lol and if she's wrong I'll complain :D lol thanks for the help