cichlid newbie advise wanted

> Popular? Yep. Does it work? Seems to work just fine, although there's
> sometimes an occassional death or two. But IMO, it's nicer to have a more
> natural looking tank where the tank size will accomodate the fish you're
> keeping. If your tank is large enough, you won't need to overstock to
> control aggression. Over the years, I've gotten away from the overstocking
> practice and moved towards more natural looking tanks. I don't know if my
> fish are any happier or not, I'm sure there's a thousand arguments on why
> overstocking is better, "My fish breed." "I've been doing it this way five
> hundred years and never had a fish die.", etc, etc. But, by not
> overstocking, you can stick with water changes once a week instead of

> > I will make an unpopular suggestion....you might want to
> > consider getting cichlids that match the water you have. It will
> > be a lot easier than trying to keep the PH up as it will have a
> > natural tendency to drop
> >
> > Other suggestions if you want malawis
> >
> > Do not mix predators and prey
> > Mbuna, the rock dwellers, are mainly herbivore, and want a lot
> > of rock face and caves.....other Malawi cichlids want open water
> > and are not as violent as Mbuna. They tend not to mix
> > If you get tank bred from your area, they hmay be used to more
> > acid water..ask at your LFS. Buy wild caught and you will be
> > storing up trouble
> > melanochromis Auratus is a violent fish. I would recommend
> > against
> >
> > Chose Mbuna in groups of 2-3 females to a male and ensure that
> > different family groups have different markings/body shapes
> > as these are the things that seem to start the wars off
> >
> > I suggest you quarantine new introductions
> >
> > The main problem with new introductions is that they are
> > introduced in to tanks where all the availble territories have
> > already been claimed. It is worth moving the decor around to
> > break up the territories which will reduce the fighting when new
> > introductions are put in (the existing fish will have no settled
> > territory to defend)
> >
> > If you are buying fish prior to putting in to your display tank,
> > I suggest holding them like they do in the LFS ie in completely
> > bare tanks with no decor as they can't mark out territories
> > easily
> >
> > Overstock +50% and so overfilter the tank as it makes it
> > difficult for territories to be established and, lots of fish
> > spreads around the aggression
> >
> > Try and build some rock outcrops that break the line of sight
> > down the length of the tank
> >
> > If you want to provide short term refuges I use lengths of
> > 3/4" pipe stacked in pyramids to give hiding spaces
> >
> > One final thing, if you move filter media in to water with a
> > very different PH, (don't forget it is a logarithmic scale so
> > PH5 going to PH 6 is a 10 fold reduction in acidity), the
> > bacteria will die back and will need a chance to stabilise and
> > grow back
> >
> > better to seed the filters as best you can and then fishless
> > cycle the tank in the right water.
> >
> > With local tank bread Mbuna, used to you tap water, success will
> > be greater IMHO as you will be able to maintain the water in a
> > constant manner
> >
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