african cichlid research

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DragonFish71

DragonFish71

Great white snark
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Apr 4, 2009
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So, I'm planning on making the move to africans and I'm doing my usual research before jumping in. I've read that malawi's need a low protein diet.

1) What is the recommended brand of food for them?
2) Or, what is the recommended amount of proteins? I found 2 foods on Fosters/Smith, one has a 35% protein and the other has 52.4%. I want to be sure that they are getting everything they need.
3) Is giving them brine shrimp, bloodworms or beefheart once a week ok?

Let me post the links.

Tropical Aquarium Fish Food: Ocean Nutrition Cichlid Omni Formula Flakes and Pellets
Tropical Aquarium Fish Food: Ocean Nutrition Cichlid Vegi Formula Flakes and Pellets
 
1. NLS- New Life Spectrum, although I feed Hikari hehe
2. The lower the protein would be better. If they eat too much protein, as you may know lol, they can bloat.
3. I'm not sure.
 
1- i feed mine new life spectrum cichlid formula 1mm sinking pellets... this is only my opinion (and the opinion of most everybody who has anything to do with africans)
3- probably, but i wouldnt just because

i didnt answer number 2 because i dont think there is a recommended protein percentage for them... its just that too much will give them bloat, which is never good, malawi cichlids are more susceptible, therefore, its name is sometimes referred to as "malawi bloat"
 
If you have peacocks and haps bloodworms as a treat is fine. I wouldn't do it if there were mbuna in the tank though.

Brine shrimp are low protein, high roughage and are fine to feed once a week.

BTW, my fish fry are high protein and both mbuna and haps will eat any fry straying too far out of the rockwork. They love a snack of fry when I don't get the holding mum out in time.
 
Thanks all for the replies. Helps get my ducks in a row for these guys.

Ok, so I just compared the NLS against the ocean nutrition cichlid veggie formula and they are both about the same. Roughly the same protein amount and all the others are close. Hmmm, guess it's time to start comparison shopping for best price.
 
Ok, we're gonna put the brine shrimp and the bloodworms in the maybe pile. They both have low proteins. So I'm thinking maybe as a once a week treat that would be fine.

Ok, veggies. I know they like veggies. Zucchini keeps coming up on my searches. Anyone?

So here's am idea of what I'm thinking about stocking. And please, all advice is needed.

acei
peacocks
yellow labs
red zebras
and I'm stuck between demasoni, cobalt blue zebras, or blue johanni


ugh, who am I kidding, I like darn near all of them.

Good news, my fiance started work on making the stands. Woohoo!!
 
take out the peacocks, they're not a good mix imo.. mbuna are too aggressive for them... You need to stick with either mbuna, peacocks, or haps. I would scratch the demasoni too just because of the fact that you need so many to work (Pseudotropheus demasoni)
 
The labs and zebras will interbreed so if you want to keep some fry you may want to go with one or the other...If you had a big enough tank you could have a mix of yellow labs and demasoni, but it would take quite a few demasonis to keep them happy
 
the probability of them interbreeding is quite small. most cases of interbreeding are from tanks where there is not an adequate male to female ratio (ie 1m lab, 3fm red zebras)... It can happen, but most of the time does not. There is a local breeder who set up a tank packed full of mbuna that everybody says interbreed, and since they are correctly stocked with proper m-fm ratios, he has not had one single case of interbreeding in the 5 years he's had the tank set up
 
Afras are good, If you get different coloured varieties you can keep three different groups of afras. Elongatus would work. Hongi. As long as you have good male female ratio, and stay away from notoriously agressive fish you will be right with a mbuna tank.


I keep yellow labs, fullerborni, johanni, cobolt blue, hongi, Red zebra (pulu). ... and at the moment I have some peacocks and haps in there, because it is more peaceful than in the tank with Mr. Angry the large venustus. Until I get a 6x2x2ft happeneing anyway. My mbuna tank is 48"x16"Wx20"H.
 
Since I'm not going with plants in this tank (the crayfish devouring $100.00 worth of plants taught me a lesson) I'm wanting colorful fish. It will be PFS and lace rock, so the fish really need to be bright. And of course they gotta get along. I know with africans it can be a tricky thing.

This tank is 48long x 18W x 31H

So, another question.

How many?
What I've read on a few sites is roughly 5 gallons per adult fish (adult at between 4-6 inches) so, the tank is 115g, I'm guestimating at that "ratio" 20 - 25 max.
 
Personally, i would get about 3 extra of whatever you decide on, and hope you have no more than 3 males :) You'll want to get more than what you plan on keeping, as juvies are almost impossible to sex, and its hard and more expensive to buy adult males or females when they're big enough to sex. 40, imo, is a bit much, especially with your tank style... if it were longer, i'd agree... being more of a tall tank, i wouldnt get more than 30 juvies
 
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