a few last starting qs on my malawi tank

[ADFs]

I finally finished cycling on my malawi tank a few days ago. yesterday, went out and got 5 yellow labs and 4 auloncara kandesis (antyone heard of these, I can't find them anywhere?!).

I only have a few stocking qs. I have lots of filtration (filstar XP3, internal corner sponge filter and a filter attached to the pump powering my UGS), could I get away with adding 3 or 4 acei or colbalt blue zebras and a pleco. I dont think I need to worry about mixing diet as I have New Life Spectrum.

Would a pleco clean the bottom as well as clearing up the algae that is begginning to worry me (its only a small amount but im paranoid!)

 

[joannde]

What size is the tank ?

 

[ADFs]

sorry, missed that out, its 55g

 

[Menagerie]

auloncara kandesis

"Aulonocara" appears to be the genus for the Malawi Lake peacocks. http://fish.mongabay.com/peacock_cichlids.htm I was told a long time ago from a respected cichlid hobbyist not to combine Haps (peacocks) with Mbuna due to their different aggressive tier structure. The labs are pretty peaceful and may due fine with the peacocks, but you will need to do some more research on what other fish, if any, will work well in your tank. You may find that you need to stick with more peacocks and stay away from Mbuna.
http://malawicichlids.com/index.htm is a great site and should help clear things up.

 

[Zagz]

I have a 125 gal malawi cichlid tank and did a ton of research. I have mixed some mbuna, some aulonocara and some haps after a great deal of research. I started with the color schemes I wanted then did the research to figure out what kind of fish would go together.

 

[Menagerie]

Zagz, maybe you can clear something up for me, are aulonocara (peacocks) and haps the same. It seems every time I look it up, I get conflicting information. BTW-What specific cichlids are in your tank?

 

[toddnbecka]

If you're worried about algae, get a BN pleco. Common pleco's are worthless for cleaning algae, and grow entirely too large for a 55.

Auloncara and Haplochromis are two different genus of Malawi cichlids. Many of the Hap's grow larger than the Auloncara's.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Haps and Peacocks are technically two seperate groupings of Malawi Cichlids. But in the most recent years the lake has been divided into strictly Mbuna or Haps. Some aquarists prefer to keep them seperate (Haps, Peacocks, Mbuna). In Malawi nothing is concrete. lol Even the scientific names change on a regular basis.

 

[DeFeKt]

i think you mean "kandeensis"

 

[ADFs]

oh ok thanks for your help, i found kandeensis, the "blue orchid", but my two inch fish have kinda red fins and look more like jacobfriebergi, which would not be good as i think they get too big for my tank. I have done a lot of research and are only aiming to get the relatively peaceful mbuna which acei and labs seem to be and also now thinking maybe metriaclima aurora.

 

[jkrumholz]

it's tough to conclusively ID with juvenile fish. (with many species, it's tough to ID adults). This is why many LFS just have "assorted africans" in a tank. It wouldn't be too surprising if you got a different Aulonocara species than you thought, or even, sometimes a hybrid. I wouldn't worry about sizing for now. They won't reach full size for a year or so. Worst case, if you have too many large males (too many often means anything >1), you can trade one back to LFS for store credit.

 

[Thebluyak]

or you can sell them, full grown cichlids can return a fancy penny, depending on breed

 

[DeFeKt]

Just to clarify,

This is why many LFS just have "assorted africans" in a tank.......thought, or even, sometimes a hybrid.

More in the case of peacocks, the reason they do this is because 99.99% of the time they ARE hybrids.
If they were pure they wouldn't sell them as "assorted" because they get more for them. Not to mention they would have bought them under the proper species name and would be labelled as so.

 

[Menagerie]

For all the "assorted" cichlid tanks I have seen, they are often Mbuna and they are mutts. My 80 gal is filled with Mbuna mutts, and I will never breed them--they spawn, but we never pull the fry--survival of the fittest in that tank!
Depending on where you are in the world, the "assorted" cichlids will vary. Due to the relatively short time these cichlids evolved, many are still able to interspecies mate, making a positive ID impossible.