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Dojo:

Aragonite sand helps. Be sure to cover it with black sand.

Why put a layer of black sand over it? With the amount of disturbance that the sand is going to see over time, the two are going to get mixed together eventually. My 75 uses 100% aragonite sand.


aquaman:

1. How do you do a 'gravel vac' when you have sand??

Skim the siphon hose just off the surface of the sand to
pick up the waste.

Where do you buy your sand at?

I've purchased all of my sand at Home Depot. You can usually find two types of playsands there that work well in african tanks - regular brown playsand, and a white Caribbean playsand (aragonite). Both require a good deal of prior rinsing, especially the latter.

2. This website says that electric yellows get 7-8 inches long. Also, if you read the bottom comments, one of the people says that their electric yellows are very aggressive. Is this typical or just a rare case?

Hmmm... 7-8". Maybe that's the world record. Most people's labs don't get much bigger than 5" for their males. Aggression with labs is very minimal for a rift lake cichlid. To find a truely "aggressive" lab on the level of some of the more pugnacious Mbuna would be rare. The most aggression I've ever seen in mine have been occasional mock battles (face-to-face mouth size-ups), chasing, and a few nipped fins.

1. Sand is highly recommended. Aragonite sand helps. Be sure to cover it with black sand. Or, use CaribSea Cichlid substrate.

2. Feed sinking foods that are high in vegetable matter 3 to 4 times a day. Foods that I recommend are Hikari Cichlid Excel, TetraMin Spirulina flakes, and HBH Veggie Wafers.

3. They have good rocks at those concrete yard places. I don't really know what to call 'em, usually you see stacks of rocks outside on wood platforms. Be sure to wash them extra good.

In the wild, Yellow Labs max out at 4.5" long. In the aquarium, they grow slightly larger. Don't listen to those who say they're aggressive, they are about as peaceful as a well-cared for Tiger Barb. I've seen minnows meaner than them. No, seriously, I have!

[span class="edited"][Edited by TheGoldenDojo 2004-07-01 01:05][/span]

A couple more questions:

1. How do you do a 'gravel vac' when you have sand?? Where do you buy your sand at?

2. This website says that electric yellows get 7-8 inches long. Also, if you read the bottom comments, one of the people says that their electric yellows are very aggressive. Is this typical or just a rare case?

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/cichlid/electricyellow.php

awesome choice making a yellow lab species tank!! you will enjoy it.
as far as sand goes, i really, really like sand better than gravel. it looks more natural and the fish, especially yellow labs love to dig spawning pits in it. sometimes it is tough for them to move gravel around. my labs love sifting through it finding food. i highly recommend it. i use aragamax sugar sand and i think it is the best. it is almost pure white, buffers water to 8.2 and is smooth so it wont hurt the fish. limestone rocks will only slightly buffer your water as it has a smaller surface area than aragamax sand to disolve.
for food, as stated before, brine shrimp, mysis, veggie flakes, new life spectrum pelles (my favorite), lettuce, spinach, zuchini, cucumber, peas...shoot, any leafy greans are good. some people say to blanch the leaves first, but i dont notice the fish reacting any different to either way. they are omnivores, so pretty much anything goes. i hear a lot of bad news about bloodworms, which baffles me because they are mosquito larvae, just freeze dried. but i have heard bad things about them. i dont use them myself.
try to get only two males and the rest females if possible. you should be able to start with about 10 and see where it goes. you might have a casualty or just a really mean one you have to remove, so this will be a good starting point. make sure you have a good filtration system and do weekly water changes. also, if you go with sand, you will not be able to use an undergravel filter, so take that into consideration. these fish will spawn regularly and with only 2 males and the rest females, you will constantly have a holding female. what to do with the fry is up to you. i just let mine spit into the tank and they are eaten. sounds cruel, but either that, or they have to be culled anyway as you can only sell so many fry. enjoy.

Well you can feed them bloodworm but only as a treat and not often lime stone and tuffa rock will be good rock for them good luck

Hello There,

More correctly it is limestone. Where I live, we have a lot of coral rock. One blessing of living on an island, (as I do), is that the stuff is everywhere. I just go outside to our yard, and I have piles of it to choose from. In fact, I have bucketfuls in my house. I am always changing the rocks around in our tanks. It certainly saves a lot of money which would otherwise be spent on rocks purchases at a LFS.

As far as acting as a PH buffer, I have read that the effect is actually rather minimal. But, then again, where I live, the water is already hard and alkaline, and comes out of the tap at 8.0-8.5 . . . just right for African cichlids!

Sand isn't a must for Malawi's, although they prefer fine substrates, gravel is okay as well.

You can feed flakes and pellets designed for African Cichlids, frozen brine and mysis shrime....but never bloodworms

Rocks can be purchased in your LFS, most rocks are okay, but if u can find lime rock (if that's the correct name for it...) which are white and will help to keep your ph up a little. That will be better than the others.

You can put your ph a bit higher...ideally to be 8-8.3, place your rocks so that there are many caves and hiding places.

Good luck