First fish suggestions

[Harls]

Hi All i was hoping to set up a malawi tank :).
i was just wondering what would be a good first fish?

[Harls]

Suggestions it is

[cocoa_pleco]

a mbuna tank would be good. what size tank would you be working with?

[Harls]

a 35 gallon i think it is

[cocoa_pleco]

10 mbuna works

[Coler]

35 gallons is pretty tight for mbuna. I would think you could attempt an all male tank with no more than 5 or 6 fish max at adult size. all male excludes any breeding aggression and limits them therefore to territorial aggression, so you want :

1. lots and lots of rockwork
2. relatively peaceful species
3. no similar colouration, to prevent two idiot fish thinking they are conspecific and shredding each other.

I would reccomend that you try and source :

iodotropheus sperengae (rusty cichlid), labidochromis caereulus, pseodotropheus acei (either or both of the 2 variants), pseudotropheus socolofi, and an albino socolofi or albino pseudotropheus macropthalsmus 'red cheek'...you can also consider pseudotropheus elongatus, which has many colour variants.

and even then its risky and you may lose fish - a bigger tank would give you much greater flexibility.