So can you both give me the range of Malawi Cichlids you would have suggested to me? Sorry to hi-jack the thread.
As you said, it does depend on the fish. My Mbuna tank has:
4 Pseudotropheus zebras, 2 Pseudotropheus ?s, 1 female Pseudotropheus daktari, female Lemon Yellow (Electric Yellow), female Pseudotropheus socolofi, a hybrid socolofi/zebra cross, one confused male Blue Acara—Aequidens pulcher, Striped River Catfish--Mystus vittatus, a common pleco, one ugly Synodontis and a Leporinus desmotes.
That gives a total of 15 fish in 80 gallons. Things are peacelful right now. I have tried to add more fish--moved all the rocks and added the new fish before adding the rocks back in and each time the established occupates killed the newbies within 12 hours (while we were sleeping). Admittedly, the number of males to females is out of whack since my husband and I bought the fish went they were little (and once they matured, there were deaths
). The only way I know if the fish is female is when I see mouth brooding! We finally live near a GREAT
LFS and are trying to better pick out new fish.
As for how many fish to put in, I'm not sure what I would have told you.