Our Malawi Aquarium

[Crystal Cichlids]

Hi all, This is my first post here on AquaticCommunity.com

First Of I would like to introduce ourselves.

My name is Crystal, and my partner is Ryan, were 21 and 28 respectively, and have been keeping various fish over the past four years - mainly Marine and Malawi's.

We have just set up another aquarium, it is custom made, with beech finishing. It is 72Lx24Wx36H and is filtered by two Fluval FX5's.

The Aquarium holds just over 1000 Liters of water.

The substrate is made up of a 70kg mixture of live reef sand (a natural PH buffer) and a fine pale gravel.

Nooks and crannies have been made for fish to swim in and out of with terracotta pots. The aquarium is heated by two 300w Heaters, and lit by 4 60" Florescent tubes.

I am looking to add the AquaFX LED lighting system to add day break and sundown effects to the aquarium. I would like some feed back on this system and others which you may recommend.

The Aquarium cycled very quickly with the help of natural sources (waste from other aquariums and pre used filter media)


At present we have just 6 Cichlids in the aquarium. But have a home delivery of 12 more due to arrive today.

in the tank right now is:

A Pair of Labidochromis Caeruleus (F1's)
A Pair of Psuedotropheus Nyasi (Wild Caught) {Breed to be Confirmed - Will post pics}
A Large 7"! Male Melanochromis Johanni (Wild Caught)
A 6.5" Male Yellow Fin Copadichromis borleyi (Wild Caught)


The Delivery I am expecting today has the following (Tank Bred F1's/F2's):

A Pair of Acei Yellow Tail Cichlids (5-6")
4 x Jalo Reef Cichlid (2")
A Pair of Hap Moori (4")
A Pair of Elongatus Mpanga (4")
A Pair of Chinyankwazi (4")


I will post all future additions to the tank in this thread with pictures and videos etc...

Wish us luck on our new Malawi Adventure

[sailor]

Welcome to the AC
Sounds awesome can't wait ti see your tank

[Aeonflame]

Very nice. Good to have you.

[sheamurai]

to AC!

LOL all that info about your tank, but where are the PICS?
We like pics ;)

[nikelodeon79]

Welcome to AC! Your tank sounds fantastic!

Can I make a few suggestions? Mbuna do not do well in pairs... I would highly recommend having at least 3-4 females per male.

Also, in addition to the pots, you may want to add A LOT of rockwork to your tank. The more caves, the better!

[Crystal Cichlids]

Thanks Everyone.

Pictures / Videos to come soon.


Thanks for the advice nikelodeon79, There is a lot of caves in there already, but I would like to rescape it, prefferably with limestone and slate, or something similar. I am keeping my mind and eyes open.

The scaping is not finished to say the least.

I know what you mean about pairs vs a 3-4:1 ratio. However most of the pairs are wild caught or F1's which has made it pretty much impossible to buy in groups, however, I have space for around another 30 imo, I think I will be sticking with the breeds I now have and just adding more females of each over time. (I have asked my importer to advise when females of each specific species comes into stock)



I Just love watching them!

[Crystal Cichlids]

Here are some pics of our fish, mainly from our supplier, as most of the fish were only introduced today and Im waiting for them to finish getting their colour back following their stress in transit.

[Crystal Cichlids]

[Crystal Cichlids]

Also We removed and returned to our Pink, Purple and Blue LFS our OB Morphs:

[Crispy]

that moorii looks huge! nice africans. patiently waiting for a vid.