Benjamin's 55g Malawi Cichlid Build

[mrbee2828]

Here are some recent pictures. The fish are really starting to change color now and they are nearing the 2"-3" mark already. These were shot with my old Nikon D40 with a Nikkor 35mm prime after a recent water change and no flash or Photoshop. 2 of my 3 Kenyi have turned yellow which I have read means they are either female or the weaker male(s).

 

[Walkbreathe]

Beautiful pictures!

 

[andresdeo]

Awesome photos, congrats!

 

[joejeff]

Here are some recent pictures. The fish are really starting to change color now and they are nearing the 2"-3" mark already. These were shot with my old Nikon D40 with a Nikkor 35mm prime after a recent water change and no flash or Photoshop. 2 of my 3 Kenyi have turned yellow which I have read means they are either female or the weaker male(s).

Lookin nice. Remind me of the plants.... Real or fake.

 

[AddictedtoFishNoW]

what kind of fish is the 2nd one? the dark cichlid ? is that a mix breed?

 

[mrbee2828]

The gray one? That was sold to me as a fry with 3 others. I was told that it was a Ob Peacock. There is another similar and the 3rd is much different, probably a female. It's mostly white with very light strips and black splotches.

 

[steez]

Awesome setup. Awesome fish. Awesome photos.


But really, nice photos.

 

[mrbee2828]

I got my LEDs in mail today so I'm going to bring the adapters I have up to RadioShack and see which they recommend with the number of LEDs I have and then calculate which resistors I need. I decided to go with white LEDs. I have seen a few fresh water moonlight setups and they look really nice in white. If it doesn't look good I will order some blue and switch out the wiring (or possibly mix in some blue).

 

[NyteGTI]

Hey ben a heads up.. Kenyi males are yellow, not the sub dominant males or females. the girls are purple & blue. you've got 2 males of a VERY agressive species

 

[mrbee2828]

Thanks! I freaking hate pet shops then.... I was told that the males were blue and the females or weaker will change to yellow. So far the aggression in the tank is very low. However, I moved what I think is the female Ob back in from the refugium the other night and it's cray cray in there again. Everyone is freaking out and picking on it.

 

[mrbee2828]

This little guy/girl is getting worked over right now by everyone in the tank. I think he's going to have to get adopted or spend the rest of his/her life in the refugium.

 

[mrbee2828]

Hey ben a heads up.. Kenyi males are yellow, not the sub dominant males or females. the girls are purple & blue. you've got 2 males of a VERY agressive species

Thanks I had to do some reading myself! Maylandia lombardoi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[mrbee2828]

Honestly, aside from the eyes, this could almost pass as an albino in some respects... just an opinion. It has very little color so I'm wondering if it's just getting beat up because of that possibility?

 

[NyteGTI]

yea it does look albino minus the eyes. is it possibly to be a hybrid albino or because it's a recessive gene you can't show albino characterists if not 100% albino?

 

[mrbee2828]

I don't know... I'm a noobie I think what's happening is that the 3 Obs are at ends when together and that is stirring everyone else up. When that 1 fish is out of the tank all is perfect.

 

[mrbee2828]

I got my LEDs in the mail a bit back and had some time to run around and get resistors and some stuff to mount and wire everything up. Last night I loosely wired up a few LEDs with the wall wart I found around the house and they seemed to fire up fine. I hope to work on it more tonight. I'm taking a leap of faith on few things. 1, the calculator I used said I would need 1/4 150ohm resistors and RadioShack only had 100ohm. I hope this doesn't result in them burning out too quickly. I'm using white vs. blue and hope it looks good. I'm going with 4 LEDs and hope that's enough.

 

[mrbee2828]

I'm mounting the LEDs to a piece of aluminum I bought at Home Depot today for about $4. It's 3/4" wide and I cut it down to 25". I drilled 4 holes and glued the LEDs in with super glue tonight. I need to do some clean up but I think this is going to work well. I'm going to start wiring tomorrow.

 

[andresdeo]

Looking good, it'll look great when up and running. Cant help you on the resistors field though, maybe someone else can chip in.

 

[mrbee2828]

I just wrapped up the LEDs and I can honestly say it's the best part of the tank. I don't know if it's the fact that it was so hands on or the fact that I rolled the dice on everything and it's perfect!

I'm so glad I went with the white. I really don't like the black light club look on a lot of these setups. It's not natural looking. If I could have found warm whites it would have been even better. Here are some shots of the progress and final result. I shot the final at about a 1sec exposure I think at f1.8/ It's pretty close to what it looks like in the room.

 

[andresdeo]

Looks great! Excelent work!